From Hunted to Hunter
by CC-2224 Commander Cody
Summary: The Story of Simon Alexander. Left orphaned by the White Fang he was conscripted into the Black Fist a human supremacist army in Atlas fighting in a genocidal war against the Fang. For over 3 years Simon fought and killed for what he thought was in service of humanity. Eventually leaving due to disgust at the Fist. he was found by Ozpin and offered a place at Beacon to fix his life
1. Abandonment

**TEAM SNST**

**A/N: **Being a massive fan of RWBY and also seeing the large fan fiction community it has following it, I thought I'd like to contribute, any constructive criticism is welcome... ENJOY :)

Chapter One: Abandonment (5 years before the events of RWBY Volume 1)

In a small town on the Edge of Vale City the raucous of a child's birthday party could be heard.  
"Tag you're it Velvet!" the young 12 year old Simon Alexander laughed as he jumped off the low shed roof in the backyard of his neighbors the Scarlatina family to tag his childhood friend Velvet, who looked like any regular girl, except for the bunny ears sitting atop her head, for she is a Faunus, a near human race whom share physical characteristics with animals. The brown haired girl squealed in delight as The boy ran off vaulting over the fence between the homes of the Scarlatina and Alexander families only to be met by half a dozen other Faunus children of varying ages who caught him mid air all laughing, "Oh ha-ha it seems you're trapped now Simmo, no one escapes the Faunus in a game of tag" a young kid who had antlers like a stag managed to squeeze out between hysterical laughter as the group carried Simon's struggling, laughing form towards the Alexander Family pool. "Please guys no not the pool, I yield, I yield" he laughed out, only to be saying it under water as his friends plunged the birthday boy into the pool. A group of parents of the children, all Faunus except for Simon and his parents looked on from near the BBQ as the Faunus children, with the exception of a set of cat-like twins jumped into the pool after Simon. With the Children out of sight in the pool, the look on the parents faces became less jovial and more apprehensive.

"Anthony, with the new leadership of the White Fang and their attitudes towards humans residing in what they consider 'Faunus Neighborhoods' it isn't safe for you or your family here anymore, we can't protect you if they target you, you know this." Satin Scarlatina said as she addressed Simon's father, Dr Anthony Alexander.  
"Satin my dear, they wouldn't dare try to kill the only doctor in this community, the Health Service would not send another and all of you would be left without medical care, not exactly a situation even the mongrels running the White Fang would welcome." the good doctor said while munching on his hamburger. The rest of the adult guests couldn't help but worry for their human neighbors whom they accepted into their small community 7 years ago without reservation on his species. another guest Mr. Montague instead tried to persuade Anthony's wife of the seriousness of the situation,  
"Martha please talk some sense into your stubborn hospital! Even if he stays to run the clinic, at least send you and your son somewhere safer, the White Fang won't show you or Simon any mercy if they come, we're saying this as friends who do not wish to see bloodshed come to our small community. Martha considered this and sent her husband a pleading look, taking him aside, whispering once they were out of sight of their friends  
"Anthony, I know you want to keep the clinic open and not be put off or intimidated by the White Fang, but our friends are right, it's in the best interest of Simon that he not stay somewhere he could be put into unwarranted danger, he is only 12, not even old enough to go to combat school yet." she pleaded, her only concern being the safety of her only child, not her husband's stubborn pride at snubbing the White Fang, her eyes desperate for him to consider his son, he averted his gaze and sighed, relenting to his wife.  
"Ok love, you and Simon will go stay with your parents, but I' am not leaving these people without accessible medical care, some of them are very ill and it is 30 minutes to the nearest hospital." Anthony said in his stubborn Matter-of-Factly tone. His wife smiled, she was always proud at how her husband put others before himself. "Ok Anthony, we'll leave tomorrow morning. I'll start packing after the party" she leaned up and kissed her husband and walked elegantly back to the group of Faunus that were her friends leaving Anthony alone to ponder what the future held for his family.

In The pool Simon splashed around with his friends "hey guys thanks for all this, it's been such a great day with you all for my Birthday, it's been so much fun to just relax out here with the best friends any boy could have" he said as he splashed some water towards Velvet and ducking under water to avoid the retaliation from the bunny eared Faunus girl. as he surfaced he was met by a torrent of water from all of his Faunus Friends who all splashed and laughed together, totally oblivious to the dark clouds gathering, about to shatter their innocent little world.

_That Night: The Alexander Residence._

As night fell and Simon was tucked into bed, Martha and Anthony began packing up Simon's things and preparing his and Martha's belongings for travel before dawn the next morning. Martha stood in her son's doorway and sighed  
"I worry about him, this place is his home, all of his friends are here, it will confuse him greatly to have to up and leave without saying goodbye to any of his friends." Anthony came up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Well this was your idea and as much as I hate to admit I' am wrong, it is wrong to endanger him by keeping him here, at least until we know what the new leaders of the White Fang are going to be like towards humans in communities such as this." he said soothingly. Martha Turned around and embraced her husband, sharing an intimate kiss... only for it to be shattered by the sound of shattering glass downstairs as several bricks went through the front windows. Martha dove into Simon's room and scooped him up, running towards the back stairwell out to the back yard as Anthony calmly picked up his rifle that hung above his bed and walked downstairs to meet the White Fang mob that were ransacking his house, they stopped and faced him, training their guns onto him.

The White Fang thug in charged stepped forward, "Are you Doctor Anthony Alexander?". Anthony nodded "yeah that's me, what's it to you? And why are you destroying my home, frightening my family" the normally calm doctor hissed at the invaders who merely laughed. The leader once again spoke up "As you're probably aware, you're living in a Faunus Neighborhood, under the umm 'Protection' of the White Fang, you and your unwillingness to resign and make way for a Faunus doctor to render medical care has been a slight against us for far too long, we're here to make sure that slight ends right now" The leader raised his gun and fired before Anthony even had a chance to raise his rifle. As the good doctor slumped onto the ground, Simon Screamed in fear at the shot and Martha quickly made a dash for the rear exit, running across the back yard to the rear fence beyond which laid the forest and beyond that, the highway into Vale. Martha heard firebombs being set off inside her former home and smashing windows as White Fang thugs burst out of the rear of the house. Martha placed Simon upon the top of the high fence. Her face pale with fear and resignation at her fate "Run Simon, run as fast and as far as you can, and don't stop for anyone! I Love you my sweet child" those were her last words before she pushed Simon over the fence and turned to face the Thugs advancing upon her.

Simon did as his mother said, he ran through the forest, ignoring the screams that emanated from his mother, growing ever softer as he ran for his life. After about an hour he came to a road, he slumped against a tree and wondered what to do next, he was for the first time in his life alone, scared and disorientated. Once he had caught his breath, he stood and turned to face down the road, in the distance he could see the lights that were the City of Vale. "Ok if I start walking now, keeping out of sight, I should make it to Vale by sunrise, maybe I'll find someone who can help me" he whispered to himself, tears still streaming down his face at the events of that night in which his life and his innocence had been destroyed, he had been left with nothing but the clothes on his back and a desperation to survive and find safety, With that he ducked into the trees once more and began the long slow walk into uncertainty...

**A/N: **So that is Chapter 1... The Plot Line of this story has been swirling around in my head and this is my first Non Star Wars related Fiction. I'll try to have a new Chapter up by Sunday Night (Australian Eastern Time). Don't worry people... our favorite Huntresses in training will appear in later chapters :) Read and Review... CC signing off.


	2. Lost, Found and Lost again

**A/N: **I have decided to give this story a name change, seeing as much of this story takes place before Simon begins at Beacon.

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN RWBY! Which is good or no one would watch it probably.**

Chapter Two: Lost, Found and Lost again

It had rained during the night, it had left Simon cold, wet and his light sleep clothes totally useless at trapping heat to warm him up. He continued to stubbornly walk towards the city of Vale, constantly looking behind him in fear of whatever attacked his family coming for him, he had heard his father's argument with whoever it was and the words "White Fang" stuck in his mind... who were they? what were they? why did they want to hurt him? these questions and more swarmed his mind forcing him to once again sit behind a tree and cry, he cried for want of his mothers hugs and the lovely hot chocolates she made him after he had been playing in the rain. He cried for want of the stories his father told him before bed, but most of all he cried because he just wanted to go home... he was sure this was some sort of horrid nightmare and in moments he would wake up screaming and running to crawl into bed with his parent where nothing bad whatsoever could happen to him. But he didn't wake up, the loving embrace of his parents never came, all that came was the continued tears and rain that soaked him to his core, extinguishing the weak flame of his will as he slumped against the tree, his tear filled eyes slowly closing.

It was several hours later when Simon jolted awake, suddenly fearful _'This is NOT my bed, THIS IS NOT RIGHT!' _his dazed and disorientated mind screamed at him, his breathing quickened and he jumped up to see the road and the outer suburbs of Vale only a couple kilometres away, his memory of the previous night slowly coming back to him. He sighed and looked at his ripped and muddied clothes looking despondent as he began walking once more, trying to work out what to do _'I must get to a police station, they can help me... they will take the bad people away and make sure I' am looked after.' _Satisfied with his plan he walked into the city. It was past noon when Simon finally reached the inner parts of Vale, he had never been into Vale before despite living so close to it. The sheer size of the buildings and the large amounts of people all crowded into such a small place only served to frighten him more, especially since a lot of these people where so mean calling him things like 'street urchin' and shoving him away, it took all his effort not to cry. _'Why were people so mean here? people back home would help someone in need, not shove them in a gutter!' _ His mind was boggled and he struggled to understand the coldness and indifference that was reality in this big, bad world. Simon Shivered from his wet and muddied clothes, saw a cafe with an outdoor heating lamp, like the one in his families back patio... his heart suddenly ached at the memories of the party he had had there only yesterday, he suddenly missed his friends, especially the playful bunny girl that was his neighbour Velvet. Simon sighed and walked over towards the cafe, his walk became a scramble as he crossed the road, very nearly getting hit by a car, which resulted in a series of yelling bad words from its driver towards Simon. as he finally reached the precious heat lamp, he slumped against a post next to it and soaked in the warmth it provided, slowly dozing off, oblivious to the dangers that surrounded him. Only for about Five minutes later for a broom to swat Simon across the face, scraping skin off as an angry shop keep yelled at the young child "GET AWAY FROM HERE YOU FILTHY LITTLE MONGREL! You're scaring away my customers, now GO!" he yelled taking another swipe at Simon as he once again jolted awake in fear and ran for his life, sobbing and crying from the shopkeeper.

He ran through the crowds not stopping until he came to a small police prescient. Simon sighed with relief _'I' am finally safe, the police will protect me' _he thought to himself as he pushed open the door to the station, a uniformed lady sat behind the desk, a TV in the corner showing a news report from Simon's home showing that his beloved childhood home had been burnt to the ground, picket signs declaring that humans leave 'Faunus neighbourhoods' must leave or suffer a similar fate. The lady behind the counter, that was covered by a very thick screen peered over to the muddy, scruffy haired boy who was fixated upon the news report showing his home, she coughed and Simon looked over. "May I help you young one?" she said with genuine care, causing the tension that had built up in the kid to immediately disappear and he smiled weakly which disappeared as quickly as it came and he slumped into a chair sobbing uncontrollably "M-My Parents, they were killed last night, Someone killed them and burnt my home" Simon managed to say before he lost control completely and simply wailed. The officer sat there shocked and saw what was on the TV which she usually ignored, putting the pieces together she immediately picked up her scroll and rang her supervisor "Sarge, you might want to get back here... something big has come up" she said simply before hanging up and going into the stations kitchenette and grabbed the muffin from her lunch and a glass of milk, brining it out to the still sobbing boy. "Here, some food might do you some good, By the way, my Name is Connie, but my friends tend to call me CT" Simon nodded his head in thanks and began to nibble, managing to control the sobbing long enough to not spill his meal. Once he had calmed down and managed to finish his food CT returned with a notepad and a recording device, "can you come with me little one, I need to ask you some questions" CT said with a motherly smile, that made Simon feel safe, he nodded and followed CT into an interview room.

Unbeknownst to CT or Simon, they were being watched from the shadows of an alley across the street, "Base, this is Rapier Wasp, I've found the Alexander kid. He just entered the police watch house on Burnett Avenue". The radio crackled and a reply came through "keep an eye on that watch house, if he remains there go in tonight and finish the Job that we began last night." a deep wolf like voice replied, the White Fang weren't going to allow a single Alexander survive to continue to slight them. The black haired man with black cat ears sitting atop his head licked his lips and retreated deeper into the shadows to wait until nightfall.

"So your name is Simon Alexander and you are the boy missing from last night's White Fang attack in the village of Exton?" CT asked jotting down notes onto her pad. Simon nodded "My mummy told me to run as far away from there as possible and not to stop, I kept running until I reached the highway and saw the lights of this Vale in the distance" Simon said meekly as the door to the station opened up and a large man came out to the back area, he wore red armoured shoulder plates and had a shotgun slung across his back "CT now what was so important as to disturb my day off catching up on my stories?" he said grumpily in a deep southern accent. "Sorry Sarge, but this kid came in and it seems he is the missing child from the Exton White Fang attack last night" CT replied firmly, obviously tired of her superiors shit. the red clad Sergeant grumbled under his breath and went into his office "I'll contact VPD HQ and you continue interviewing the boy, you always seemed the motherly type anyways" he slammed his door shut. CT sighed and returned her attention back to Simon who was chuckling at the exchange he had just seen from the police officers. "Connie, what is the White Fang? And why do they hate my family?" Simon asked curiously, CT was caught off guard and stumbled slightly "Um well Simon, The White Fang are a group of Faunus who don't like people very much and don't like us exerting control or living in what they think is Faunus territory like they believed Exton is" she said trying not to overwhelm the fragile emotional and mental state Simon was in. Simon contemplated this and frowned "But all my friends and their families are Faunus, they don't hate us... why would the White Fang do this when the people actually living there didn't want that to happen?" Simon replied oblivious to the realities of the world beyond his childhood home. CT merely smiled and offered Simon another glass of milk that he accepted. Sarge's office door opened up and he walked out grumbling, pulling CT aside and whispering "Just got off the horn to HQ, some special agents will be here tomorrow to take Simon to a safe house, until then he is to stay here and not go out. HQ thinks that the White Fang will try to finish what they started..." CT gasped at this news and looked very worried for the child's safety. "We'll both stay here overnight, making sure no harm comes to Simon" Sarge said in his usual serious tone before returning to his office.

CT spent the afternoon watching over Simon, fetching him some colouring pencils and paper, which he used to draw contentedly, finally allowing the fear to subside, relieved that the pain was over and the White Fang couldn't hurt him... or so he thought at the time. That night he had fallen asleep on a swag that the Sarge had supplied to him, he curled up but couldn't sleep, too many nightmares of the previous night. CT sat across the room in her desk filling out paperwork and Sarge was in his office polishing his beloved shotgun. It was about 1am when it struck, the power to the station cut out and several bricks and Molotov's went through the front windows causing Simon to relapse into paralysed fear screaming and sobbing as Three men and a woman entered all dressed in White Fang uniforms carrying various blades and pistols. "Give us the boy and you won't be harmed officers, we have no quarrel with you... yet" the leader said his golden cat-like eyes boring straight into the skull of Simon. CT arced up service pistol drawn and fired, taking one down before another flipped off the ceiling, driving a blade up into CT's chest she fell coughing as a large red pool gathered around her. The remaining Four assassins advanced towards the helpless Simon who had curled up into a ball and held his hands up over his face in a feeble attempt to defend himself, just as all seemed lost a shotgun blast tore through the Sergeant's office window taking out another assassin. "he he, you just got Sarged" he said proudly in his southern accent as he hit the female assassin with the butt of his shotgun before shooting down the 4th, leaving only the black haired, cat-eared leader. Simon began slowly making his way towards the station's rear exit. He watched as Sarge fought the leader who used a black painted katana to attack the shotgun wielding police officer, who at the worst possible moment, ran out of shells in his weapon. The officer attempted to smack his opponent with the butt of his weapon only to be impaled onto the katana. Simon flinched at the sight and ran out the back door, though the car park and into the night, once more running and not turning or looking back. meanwhile back at the police station the White Fang Assassin grumbled as he stepped over the bodies that littered the floor, about to chase after his target before being forced into the shadows by the arrival of Light Armoured Assault Carriers of the Vale Defence Force's 1st Mobile Regiment as well as various police vehicles. he cursed under his breath at the failure of his mission, but decided with this part of the city going into lockdown, it wasn't worth pursuing the kid at this time.

Simon ran for what seemed like hours until he reached the docks, he hid among some crates and began to sob and shake uncontrollably, for the second time in only 24 hours he was on the run, witnessing those who tried to protect and help him get cut down, the face of the man, no not man... the beast who did this burnt into his mind. he huddled up into a ball among the crates that bore a Snowflake emblem and the words SDC on them, Simon admired the pretty design and wondered where the crates where going when a though crossed his mind, _'I must get away from here... far away where no one will ever find me' _Simon decided in his mind, knowing that staying here will only result in more people dying because they wanted to help him. With that though, Simon opened up a crate and hid inside, after a while he felt the crate move and being loaded upon the ship, after a couple hours when he was sure the ship was moving, Simon exited the crate and found a store of old threadbare blankets to curl into, the blankets where rough, itchy and uncomfortable but they were infinitely better than the cold metal ship surface. once he settled in Simon, filled with fear of what had happened, apprehension with what will follow and an odd sense of excitement of going on this 'Grand Adventure' settled into sleep.

**A/N: **Yes I referenced Red Vs Blue here... I was going to have a Caboose like character be a 3rd police officer, but decided against it after this week's near death of our favourite Blue clad Soldier... in all seriousness to do that to our beloved Caboose was the biggest dick move EVER... OF ALL TIME! I hope whoever decides to read this will enjoy it... any advice or comments are welcome - CC :)


	3. The Rapscallion

**A/N:** CC here with Chapter 3 of From Hunted to Hunter... it is amazing how engrossed in writing Fan Fics I can become when procrastinating from uni assignments. The next couple of chapters is where things really start piecing together... or falling apart for Simon depending on your perspective. As usual I hope those people who chose to read my work really enjoy it, feel free to leave your thoughts both negative and positive in the reviews, I welcome all comments :)

**Disclaimer: Still don't own RWBY, nor do I really want to... it's too good for me to risk ruining.**

Chapter Three: The Rapscallion.

It had been a Week since Simon had stowed away on the container ship to take him away from the deadly nightmarish reality that his life had become, the boy had made the ships hold into his own little hidey hole. After exploring the hold, Simon deduced that this ship was run by the Schnee Dust Company but that smaller companies also rented out space in the hold to transport goods to Atlas where the SDC was based from Vale. As he ducked from container to container both looking for food, clothing and bedding material as well as hide from any ship's crew that come down to check the cargo, Simon felt guilty every time he opened up a crate to and even more guilty when he actually took something from said crates even if it was only a blanket or a item of clothing. His parents had taught him that stealing was very wrong, but Simon was scared if he showed himself again, the assassins would return and attempt to kill him again which could lead to the crew being hurt or the ship sunk. Not willing to put anyone at risk for him, Simon stayed hidden in the hold... at least until after a week he realised he couldn't put off having to sneak into the rest of the ship to find food, as there was none in the hold and he was dangerously malnourished and devoid of energy. He feared he might pass out and not reawaken on the seemingly endless journey to atlas, and he didn't survive two attempts on his life just to die from his own stupidity and not putting survival over morals, '_it is only a little food, it's not like I'm going to kill anyone... no harm will come of this' _Simon reasoned as he slipped up into a ventilation shaft, immediately smelling the scent of soup and toast. His mouth suddenly watering, Simon's basic survival instincts took over and he silently, breathlessly crawled through the shaft following the scent of food, after about 30 minutes of inching himself closer, he found a grate right over the galley, it took all of Simon's self control to not just jump down right in front of the dozen or so crew eating in the galley area so he waited patiently. After an hour the last crewman left to go out to duty and ever so slowly did Simon drop down and walk over to the now simmering stove, Simon held his breath as he lifted the lid to see a very thick mix of peas, ham and potatoes. _'They won't notice or care if I take just a bowl or two for myself' _Simon thought as he took a large container and filled it with the green gloop, taking a spoon and some bread for good measure before sealing the container and slipping back to his little hidey hole in the cargo hold. This was the pattern for the next two weeks on the trip to Atlas, Simon would get hungry, sneak to the galley and steal just enough food to stave off hunger for another day, it became so routine that Simon's conscience no longer nagged at him for taking food for survival and it certainly didn't nag Simon when he found a small crate inscribed with 'Property of Heiress Weiss Schnee' on it and decided to ransack the contents of a lovely White silk dress to use as a pillow and a matching Skirt to tear open to use as a blanket _'Some spoilt little rich girl won't miss one dress and skirt, she probably has more than she already knows what to do with' _Simon thought to himself as he dozed off on his new silken bed.

After about three weeks on the ship, it began to slow down, Simon wondered why and eventually came to the conclusion that Atlas was nearing and the ship was preparing to dock. Simon found the crate he had originally embarked in and crawled back inside, steeling himself for what was to come. The Crate jolted sharply as it was lifted from the ship by what Simon imagined was a large crane, once he felt the crate jolt again as it hit the ground Simon cracked open the door and peered out... and that's when trouble struck, the crate was atop a pile of other crates so Simon would have to climb down, no mean feat for a child with more than a slight fear of heights. Simon ever so slowly began his climb down the three or four storeys with of SDC crates, Simon was down to the second to last crate when a yell reached his ear "OI YOU! STOWAWAY... GET OVER HERE NOW!" Simon turned to see two dock workers running his way. Simon Panicked and jumped, landing awkwardly on his right knee, feeling something pop Simon winced and yelled in pain as a White-red glow appeared around his body. Simon momentarily stood frozen in wonderment at the glow before feeling the pain in his leg dissipate he faced forward and took off, his senses, agility and speed all heightened with the White-red Glow the enveloped his body as Simon ran towards the entrance to the harbour.

Weiss Schnee PoV:

It was another typical day for the Schnee family, our Father had decided to take us on a 'Day Out'. Obviously our ideas of what that term means, so here we were watching our latest shipment enter the port. I was bored out of my skull, I would have much rather spent today out shopping or catching up with my friend Pyrrha Nikos. My sister Winter was next to me, looking equally unhappy turned to our father "Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?"  
I also took this as my time to protest only just noticing the smell of near putrid fish from the fishing boats nearby Holding my nose I complained "ugh yes dad, they smell like fish."  
Our father merely grunted in that grumpy way when he wanted us to stop talking "there is a very important shipment of Dust coming in today and I must ensure it arrives safely." he replied sourly and stuck his nose back into his scroll filling out forms. I humph and turned away when something caught my eye, a boy about my age running across several ranks of dust containers normally it stick my nose up at such a rapscallion causing a ruckus in my families' dock but on this occasion I was just to bored to bother with putting on the whole pretentious brat act that my family name demanded of me. Instead I kept my eyes on him, instantly registering the fact he had an Aura of Red and White surrounding him _"He must be an extremely skilled warrior to be able to conjure an Aura so young, I wish he would teach me how to summon an Aura'_ Weiss thought dreamily to herself. The chocolate haired boy suddenly switched directions coming straight for us in an effort to evade the dock staff. My curiosity and rebellious streak were piqued as the kid leapt off the last container right over us and barrel rolling over our car within feet of me before returning to his feet and running off into the distance of an alley way.

A Small smirk came across our face, it took all my effort not to straight out laugh when the dock staff stopped by our car huffing and puffing. My father was instantly angry yelling at the dock foreman and demanding to see the ships security officer, my sister Winter noticed my smirk and poked me "looks like someone's got their first crush" she whispered. I turned to her and smacked her arm incredulously, "I do NOT, I merely find it amusing that someone so young could make these dock workers look like such fools" I whispered back as several of the ships officers walked up to my father carrying a crate bearing my name on it _"ooh a gift, so this is why my father brought me here, this day just gets better' _I thought to myself. The Foreman handed the box inscribed with my name to my father, both men were fuming as I heard the foreman speak "That little shit ransacked your daughters personal cargo and used her dress and skirt for bedding, they are ruined beyond repair." My face fell _'IF I EVER SEE THAT LITTLE RAPSCALLION AGAIN I WILL KILL HIM!' _I fumed in my head as I went and skulked in the car for the rest of the day.

3rd Person PoV:

Simon hid out in an Alley way near the centre of the town adjoining the docks exhausted and looking at his hands as the glow died down _'What happened to me? that is NOT normal! NONE of this is normal? am I some kind of freak' _where some of the questions that ran through his mind, he had never been a particularly fast or agile person outside of climbing trees and vaulting the fence between his and the Scarlatina's yard. And that's when the loneliness and anxiety hit him like a freight train as he slumped against the wall "oh my mummy, I miss you... why did you and dad have to leave me?" Simon sobbed "why did they come, what did we do wrong, my daddy was the good doctor, no one hated him in our town! IT ISN'T FAIR! WE DID NOTHING WRONG!" Simon screamed at the wall as he once again collapsed sobbing _'What if it wasn't only my family, what if they hurt poor, sweet Velvet as well... NO, just NO... keep calm Simon, the White Fang are Faunus, they wouldn't dare harm one of their own? right?' _Simon tried to reassure himself, not sure if he actually believed himself... but he needed the hope of something or someone to return to eventually. Simon had kept the long since ruined dress, skirt and some extra stolen food in a knapsack as he made his escape. _'Ok Simon, get some rest, that glowing thing has really taken it out of you. when you wake up, got to begin thinking of a way to get out of this mess' _he thought to himself as he nestled into the shadows of the Alley way for a much needed rest, his last thoughts before succumbing to sleep going out to the group of loving friends he left behind, wishing them well until he returned.

**A/N: **I was going to make this much longer at first but I decided to split it into two separate chapters... and something tells me that Simon will one day eventually regret crossing one Weiss Schnee haha. -CC Signing off for now.


	4. Survival Instincts

**A/N: **Looking back over Chapter 3, I' am not quite happy with it... it seems rather forced, so I apologise now to anyone who actually reads this far into my story if they found chapter 3 to be lacklustre, lets hope the standard improves as I go along, then people might enjoy my story a bit more... so without further pointless ramblings from the author I bring you Chapter 4 of From Hunted to Hunter -CC.

Chapter Four: Survival Instincts

Simon awoke with a start, he didn't know how long he had been out of it, but he knew it was night out by now, his stomach rumbled and he pulled out his container of soup and woofed it down despite the fact it was cold and didn't taste very good. But Simon didn't complain, all he wanted to do was to survive long enough to be able to safely go home. _'may as well do some exploring, this container won't last forever and I need to find a new source of food' _he thought to himself as he finished off the container of soup and standing up to leave his little hide. Two hours later after much exploring the town from the shadows, Simon happened across a small market that had shut for the night and snuck atop its roof looking for a vent to use to access the store as he had aboard the SDC freighter. Not finding any Simon grunted deciding to find somewhere else, except his stomach rumbled violently, frowning he weighed up his options _'well the windows didn't have any bars on them, maybe a large enough rock will break it?' _Simon thought to himself before almost instantly rebuking himself _'Sneaking through a vent is one thing... but destroying someone's property just to eat is totally unacceptable, what would mum think!' _his conscience tried to reason, with this the two sides of Simon's head went to war on eachother, his survival instincts that wanted to eat and his conscience that demanded he stay the well behaved boy he was before... before he was left on his own. _'There's no point being good if that only gets you dead! find a rock, smash the window and what you need... nothing more.' _Simon held is head and groaned, not having anyone to talk to was beginning to cause his mind to fracture, having discussions and arguments with his own head. Eventually the most basic human needs of food won out and Simon jumped down towards the rear of the building, as he began scrounging through the piles of junk he found an old microwave "ugh, this old heap of junk will do the job I guess" Simon muttered as he struggled with all his strength to lift the hulking appliance and drag it back around to the front of the shop _'Ugh that mysterious glow would come in such handy right now'_ Simon fumed still not having worked out what had happened to him. Having finally managed to get the hulking microwave to the front of the shop Simon picked it up; huffing and puffing as he hurled it as hard as he could being met with a satisfying shatter of glass _'well that felt strangely gratifying, no wonder dad liked to go shooting on weekends, breaking things is quite fun' _Simon chuckled before the pang of hurt hit his heart as his dad had promised to teach him to shoot after he had turned 12. his mood ruined Simon slipped into the store and headed straight for the dried food isle, taking large tins of spaghetti and packets of beef jerky. As he heard the sounds of police cars approaching Simon knew that it was time to get out of there... but not before grabbing a block of his favourite chocolate and dashing down an alley way and taking a long route to his hide to avoid the police searching the area.

Sitting down in his hide Simon bit into a piece of beef Jerky and gazed at his hands _'Now what in the Grimm happened at the docks? Do I have super powers or am I just a freak?' _Simon pondered before remembering a tale his mother had told him as a bed time story about a knight who glowed in battle and who was unstoppable in battle when he glowed _'So that wasn't just a fairy tale mummy told me to fill my head with wild dreams, I' am exactly like that knight. This could come in handy... it could help me break into places easier and get into places I didn't used to be.' _Simon smirked at his plan to use this new found ability to his advantage, only for his conscience to rebuke him once more _'One: you have only conjured that glow once. Two: even if you could conjure it again, how would you be able to control it? Three: your mother would abhorrer this behaviour from her son.' _Simon instantly fumed at his own mind _'Well I'll just practice then, I WILL Control this power, I WILL NOT allow you or anyone tell me otherwise!' _Simon mentally screamed at himself as though he were two different people entirely. _'If your mother saw you like this, she would be so very disappointed in you' _his conscience rebutted, this only made Simon angrier _'My mother is DEAD! The White Fang KILLED HER and DAD! and anyone else who tries to only HELP ME! they need to pay... yes I'll use my power to kill them once I control it!' _Simon by this time was in a blind rage swung around and punched a nearby wall, snapping several bones in his hand, which snapped him out of his rage and caused him to yelp in pain. "Gah fuck that hurts, stupid, stupid, STUPID me!" he rebuked himself as he clenched his hand, slowly the red-white glow reappeared and Simon felt his hand rapidly healing, cracked and broken bones mending together as if he had never been injured in the first place. "whoa, now that is cool" Simon said in wonderment, as the glow subsided, he felt very exhausted from the experience. His mental Argument all but forgotten laid down on the bed he had made out of the "rich brat" Weiss Schnee's dresses and dozed off to sleep.

Over the next two weeks Simon followed much the same pattern, spend the day light in his hide trying to summon and control the mysterious glow that came and went. Then at night he would prowl the streets looking for somewhere to scrounge food, taking every precaution to not be seen or caught, most of the time there was a air vent that his small frame could fit into, unfortunately sometimes windows had to be smashed and police ended up being sent in, only to find an empty store with no money missing while Simon made it safely back to his hide without incident, at least until today... Simon had head out early this evening just before sunset to get to a different part of the port town as police numbers had drastically increased, strolling past an electronics shop Simon saw his photo plastered on the Tv, well a blurry black and white version of him from a stores security camera. Simon gulped and pulled down the hood of the jumper and brim of the cap he had taken possession of the night before and quickly made his way as fast as he could into the next district of the city where he settled into an alley overlooking a food shop and waited for it to close, he was lucky he was so small and inconspicuous that no one gave him a second look. Simon had become quite adept at this watching and waiting, he could see that this shop lacked tv cameras, had roof access into the vent system, but had bars over doors and windows. Obviously this place was prepared against adult robbers, but not a hungry child with a quick mind.

As night fell Simon crept up onto the roof and through the access hatch, he slowly makes his way through the vents until he finds a hatch right over the dried food isle, dropping down he grabbed what he needed as well as a bottle of water and several packs of gum, as he had a foul taste in his mouth for days now and kept forgetting to get some gum, satisfied at his haul Simon climbed back into the vents and made his escape. Once off the roof he made his way into an alley and began walking the back streets towards his hide. It was when Simon got about halfway to his hide when disaster struck... he was travelling down an alley when a dozen teenage Faunus and humans dropped down from a low roof top and surrounded Simon. The apparent leader: a large Wolf like Faunus stepped forward and two human teenagers grabbed Simon by his arms "Well, well well... what have we got here? a trespasser on our turf? what are you? some West-side snitch here to spy on us?!" he fumed at Simon as he drew a switchblade. Simon squirmed and pleaded "no, no, NO I' am not in any gang... I just needed some food. please let me go?" he said tears welling up in his eyes. The group of teens merely laughed and one stepped forward; a Faunus and punched Simon square in the jaw smiling smugly "I think he is lying boss." The leader frowned and looked evilly at Simon "Boys show this kid what we do to snitches." With that command the two holding Simon's arms jerked them so his chest was fully exposed and gagged his mouth with a sock the other nine underlings began pummelling Simon's face and abdomen. Simon attempted to struggle and scream but was prohibited from doing so by the gag and the thugs holding him. After what seemed an eternity the leader raised his hand to tell the thugs to stop, they backed away from Simon and let him slump to the ground. One of the human thugs picked up Simon's sack and looked at its contents "hey boss, look groceries, maybe the kid was telling the truth" he said without regret for the savage beating they had just inflicted. The leader dismissed it "doesn't matter, this kid ain't from around here, so he isn't welcome here... especially at this time of night." The leader then kneeled next to Simon and held the switchblade to his throat, leaning in the leader whispered "come into our turf again, and I'll gut you and leave you to bleed to death in the street... got it you little piece of filth?!" Simon nodded meekly, in too much pain to really understand what was going on. The leader stood up and walked away but not before leaving one final insult to Simon "take the bag, just so he gets the message he isn't welcome here or to take anything from here" before walking into the night his posse in tow. Simon merely passed out in the alley, wondering if what he had done to deserve the beating and if he would live to see the sun rise.

Simon groggily awoke just before sunrise at about 4am the next morning in a pile of his own blood. his head and ribs where throbbing in pain and Simon could barely see out of his left eye. Using all his energy and some reserve stores of adrenaline Simon managed to get to his feet and slowly hobble his way through the back streets and by 6:30am had made it to his hide. His cuts and gashes still oozing blood through the congealed blood that was currently forming a scab and his left cheek swollen with what felt like a fractured cheek bone. _'Why had they attacked me, I did nothing to them, they can't just say a piece of the city is theirs to keep and own' _Simon questioned himself before remembering the vile feeling of a knife to his throat, at this Simon threw up what was left in his stomach... which wasn't much at this point. _'That's it, I must find myself a weapon. I can't count on people leaving me alone just because I leave them alone, and if I see those thugs again... I'll KILL THEM!' _Simon's darker side fumed, drowning out any arguments for calm and forgiveness that his conscience may have raised. But any notion of revenge would have to wait until his wounds had healed... and without control of the glow, that would take time. Simon grunted in pain as he gently lay himself into his hide, his stomach grumbling from lack of food and the fact he had thrown up what little food he had consumed. _'It'll take a miracle to keep me alive through this, and I can't risk going to a hospital... I' am a wanted criminal by the looks of it' _Simon mulled over his options as sleep came quickly and Simon was too weak to resist its grasp.

It had been a Week and Simon's injuries hadn't gotten any better, he had deduced that he had a fractured cheek bone, at least 4 broken ribs among a concussion and various gashes in his head. Simon had not left his hide to find food and was thus too weak to summon the glow to heal himself once again as he had before. To fight through the pain Simon had taken to filing two iron bars into pointed shanks spending every waking hour by a block of cement perfecting his new weapons. _'Finally, they're finished, I'd like to see any would-be thug mug me now!'_ he thought confidently as he taped the now sharpened bars to his forearms with some duct tape he had taken during an earlier raid on a shop. Waiting until nightfall Simon gingerly stood up and hobbled into the shadows, grunting in pain with every breath he took due to the still broken ribs. Simon returned to the store nearest to him, as to go further would have been to taxing on his weakened and battered frame. Despite this store having roof access, Simon didn't have the energy to climb up to the top, instead opting for chucking a brick through the still unbarred windows. Stepping inside Simon made a beeline for a bottle of cold water and a box of muesli bars, not bothering to wait until he had to return to his hide, Simon chugged the entire bottle and ate the whole box of bars within two minutes. Feeling his energy return, Simon grabbed more muesli bars and slowly nibbled away as he restocked his currently non-existent food supplies.

Once he had gathered all he needed Simon heard the sound of sirens in the distance and dashed out the door and into the alley way next to it, taking a long weaving path back to his hide. But as Simon neared his hide, he heard voices; three voices in his hide, he also heard the sound of rummaging. Ever so slowly, Simon laid down his bag and edged around the corner, keeping to the shadows sneaking towards the potential hostiles. There were two thugs in camouflage pants and shirts sifting through Simon's few possessions. Simon slipped on a bottle and grunted, causing the thugs to turn their attention to him. "Hey kid come here a moment will ya" one of the thugs said raising a pistol, which was the worst possible thing to do. In an instant Simon began to glow and despite the almost unbearable pain he lunged at the thug hitting him with all the force he could muster, the sharp end of one of the bars taped to Simon's forearms being rammed into the base of the thugs neck where throat met collar bone and the other piercing his heart cavity. Blood squirting onto Simon as he withdrew his makeshift weapons, coating Simon in a hot red mess. By this time the other thug had raised his rifle and fired off several silenced rounds at Simon who bounced off the narrow walls of the alley that made up Simon's hide before once again lunging at his attacker only to be hit in the face with the butt of the thugs rifle. Hitting the ground hard Simon saw stars but as the Thug closed in to finish him off, Simon launched his leg up into the thug's groin and in the moment it took for the thug to react in pain and lower his weapon, Simon upper cut the thug with his dominant left hand The iron shank impaling his head through his throat and up into his mouth. As Simon withdrew the shank and let the man fall, a hair raised on his spine... he had heard THREE voices originally. Looking around Simon saw a lighter lighting a smoke or a cigar and then heard chuckling and clapping from the shadows. Simon took up a low crouch position, ready to lunge and land a kill blow. "Well done Kid, for someone at your age to conjure such a powerful Aura as to negate the pain of your wounds and be able to fell two of my top bodyguards, I must say I' am impressed." came a patronising voice as a man wearing a White suite wielding a, weaponised cane and wearing a black bowler hat over fiery red bangs came into view. Simon and the man circled each other sizing the other up. But at that moment Simon's Aura failed him and he doubled other puffing and exhausted, feebly raising his arms defensively. The suited man merely laughed "There is no need to see me as hostile, in fact quite the opposite... I' am here to help you" He said coming closer and offering his hand to Simon, who accepted it and stood up.  
"But why would you want to help me? I have nothing you want." Simon replied becoming more and more confused by the moment.  
"Oh but you do, you see... you are what I want. It has taken so long to track you down Simon Alexander." The suited man replied smiling in a friendly manner. Simon was very much taken aback by the fact that this total stranger knew who he was. "And what is so special about me then? And also who are you?" Simon asked suspiciously. The man gasped mockingly "My My, where are my manners. I' am Roman Torchwick, and my employers have sent me here to find you and offer you a safe place. and eventually an opportunity for revenge" Roman said sinisterly. The topic of Revenge piqued Simon's interest. "Oh yeah, and who would I be getting revenge on then?" Simon asked curiously.  
"Why the White Fang of course. They are the ones who caused you all this pain aren't they?" Roman replied. But Simon was no longer listening for he had finally realised he was covered in blood and had seen the two limp bodies in the alley. A Blood curdling scream emanated as Simon fell to his knees sobbing and ripping the bars off his arms tossing them aside and rocking side to side "What have I done, I-I killed them, I didn't even think about it, didn't give them a chance, I just saw their guns and lunged!" Roman stood back and let Simon vent his disgust at himself "Oh my what would my mum say... she would be appalled at me, i-i took another life, their blood spilled all over me."

After about 5 minutes Simon had finally calmed down and Roman pushed his offer "come with me kid, you won't survive more than a month if you stay on the street like this... don't you want revenge on the White fang as well? to kill the ones who killed your parents?" he was taking a gamble mentioning killing like this, but it paid off. Simon had finally broken, his conscience silent for as the longer he thought about killing those two thugs, the more he relished it and sadistically enjoyed the thought of doing it again "Well I crossed the point of no-return long ago, I can never go back to where or who I was, so if you want to recruit me for anything that will keep me safe, allow me to survive and find and kill whoever destroyed my life, I' am in" Simon said dead pan, the sparkle of life gone from his eyes as he followed Torchwick to his car, a large green 4WD and they drove in silence for what seemed like hours, Simon staring out the window reminiscing on the past weeks seeing his childhood slip away with every decision that took him from bad to worse, until eventually survival was all that mattered, even if that meant murder.

After several hours driving from the Port city out into the wilderness Roman eventually pulled up to an old farmhouse, where the car was were met by armed men in camouflage similar to the men Simon had killed the last evening. Turning to Simon, Roman smirked and said "Welcome to the Order of the Black fist, sworn to fight and defeat the White Fang movement and ensure human superiority in Remnant." he exited the car and Simon followed suit, steeling himself for the dangers and challenges that life as an insurgent would almost certainly bring to him and he would conquer those challenges through any means required.

**A/N: **Well this was an interesting chapter to write as I haven't really written a fight scene before. This brings to an end to what I call the "introduction Arc". Chapter Five will be the beginning of the "Insurgency Arc" That follows Simon as a member of the Black Fist fighting against the White Fang. I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoy writing it for you. Please Read & Review as feedback on how I' am doing and how people are enjoying this is really appreciated. - CC Signing off.


	5. Vindex Umbra

**A/N: **HI ALL! :) CC here, finally finished the essay I was meant to write so I' am back with Chapter Five of From Hunted to Hunter. I hope you enjoying this so far because the plot will only get thicker and quicker from here on in... and if you're not, well feel free to suggest ways to improve, I won't explode you with dust for venting displeasure with my work :P

**DISCLAIMER: **I DO NOT own RWBY... or I'd smack Jaune over the head repeatedly until he sees how Pyrrha feels about him.

Chapter Five: Vindex Umbra  
(Set Two years after Chapter Four, Three years before the events of RWBY Volume 1)

Simon's PoV

It was late at night as I stood hunched over my work station in the weapons forge of the Black Fist's remote training stronghold, assembling the last parts of my new weapon. I smiled as I finished the last weld and lifted my welding visor _'good, now just got to polish and put a coat of finish her' _I thought to myself as I lifted my newly built Medium Calibre Gun Staff from the work bench: a lethal combination of a double bladed combat staff and a 7.62mm machine gun. Twirling it softly in my hands getting a feel for how the 50cm blades mounted either end weighted against the meter long staff and how it moved in my hands before flipping the switch and watching it transform an less than a second into the waist fired machine gun which was a simple process: the blades collapsed upon themselves and several plates along the shaft slid and popped out to create handholds, The Bolt, a laser for aiming, the trigger and entry and ejection ports for the dust cartridges loaded into the 250 round pouches that lined the bandolier around my waist. Satisfied at my handy work I left the welding station and proceeded to another station smooth off the final welds on the horizontal handhold and apply coats of finish and paint.

As I was finishing the polish I heard several sets of footsteps approaching and several sets of laughs. I smirked as my fellow trainees and might I say great friends of the last two years ruffled my hair "So you finally finished this staff of yours Simon... only took you three weeks longer than the rest of us, but then again you never were the most quick minded or witted person of the group" my bunkmate 16 year old Gregory said as he gave me a congratulatory noogie. I mock laughed "Well my overly impatient friend, you cannot rush perfection, just as you cannot rush stealth drills, lest you get electrocuted... AGAIN" I said back mockingly, getting the intended result with the larger less agile boy shaking his head and huffing in defeat. Another of our team, Ander, grabbed up the staff and looked it over "So what are you going to name it?" I thought for a moment and smirked "It's name is _Vindex Umbra... Vengeful Shadow for those illiterate folk among us"_ I replied looking mockingly at Gregory who flipped me off. Taking my weapon back just as I heard the doors to the forge open with a smack "RECRUITS READY!" screamed our trainer, a large angry man that demanded we merely call him "Sir" we knew of no other name for him, even if we did, we didn't dare mutter it for fear of being beaten. The foul mouthed and even more foul tempered instructor stopped in front of me taking my newly finished Gun Staff and inspecting it smirking as he did "Good Job Simon. A simple yet elegantly effective weapon. But it took you several weeks longer than it should have to forge, which means you are at a severe disadvantage, you WILL take your final survival and combat trials at the same time as the rest of these other orphan soldiers, so if you die from not having enough time to train with and form a bond with your weapon and team, then that is your fault and your fault alone" Sir said as he stepped back and addressed the other 12 young teens aged from 14 to 16 in the room, all left orphaned by the White Fang during their first murderous rampage two years ago. "Tomorrow you all begin training for your final test: one week alone with nothing but your weapons and each other in the Grimm Woods. Survive and you will be sent out into the fight against the White Fang. Die and it will be as if you never existed to us. AM I CLEAR?!" He yelled at us. All of us merely collectively gulped and nodded. Sir Smirked "Good now get some chow and get to bed, you have a big few days ahead." He turned on his heel and walked out and we followed obediently.

An hour later after some food, we crawled into our bunks and laid down to sleep, _Vindex Umbra _resting on set of hooks I had nailed into the wall. But I couldn't sleep, only another month and I'll either be dead or fighting to the death against those who put me into this situation in the first place The White Fang. My mind reflected upon my time here. From my arrival when Roman Torchwick had handed me off to several masked men at the farmhouse who brought me here to the camp way out in the middle of nowhere, over the next few weeks the rest of the orphans I now called my friends had arrived in similar circumstances, all found by Torchwick and handed off at the farmhouse. Slowly my hand raisied to my throat which brought up a bad memory, my earliest memory of my time in the Black Fist. Sir carried a rattan cane for inflicting punishment upon us if we fucked up. I had only run afoul of the rattan cane he carried once, it was in my first week at the camp. I shuddered at the memory as it and its implications filled my head: Sir was lecturing us on the evilness of all Faunus...  
_"The Faunus if given the chance will enslave and destroy humanity, it is the job of the Black Fist to ensure this does not happen. The governments of the kingdoms gave the Faunus the chance to be our equals, and the disease the is the White Fang merely spat back in our faces and for two years has been terrorising humanity all over Remnant. Thus it is the view of the Black Fist that the Faunus can NOT be trusted as equals, to ensure the survival of Humanity, we must either enslave or eradicate the Faunus!" Sir had said. At this I had raised my hand and all eyes went to me  
"But sir, surely not all Faunus are bad? I lived in a Faunus community and my neighbours treated us all well, all my friends were Faunus, none of them seemed evi..." I never had the chance to finish my sentence as the rattan cane cut off my speech as it connected with my throat. I doubled over gasping for air. "Wrong Simon, if those so called friends weren't evil, why didn't they protect you? why did they let the White Fang kill your mum and your dad eh?!" I honestly had no answer to this so I merely nodded and sat silently to continue listening to the lecture.  
_Sir had left my already fragile head in turmoil with that one statement... why didn't my neighbours especially the Scarlatina's assist my family when the White Fang came? At First I refused to believe my Faunus friends and their families capable of such betrayal and I merely sat silently during the lectures silently protesting and disagreeing, but after many more lectures from Sir and our other instructors as well as updates from all over Remnant about the atrocities that the White Fang had committed upon humanity, I eventually realised that my former friends were no longer my friends, or my equals, they were mere objects complicit in my parents death and needed to have punishment rendered upon them.  
From the point I came to that realisation onwards I was the most vocal supporter of the Black Fist and the most violent combatant in training, I was far from the most skilled or the smartest in the group but I was the most committed which kept me in my instructors good books, tonight as with every other night I dozed off with images of me killing Faunus in my head and a bloodthirsty smirk on my face.

It was mid morning on the combat range after Aura practice, which I had long learned to control and was moving onto attempting to discover my semblance, It was my first fight with Vindex Umbra with its new black-gray paint scheme. Gregory was my opponent armed with his wrist mounted armoured flame thrower gauntlets and various daggers. We circled each other, I struck first. Lunging at Gregory's legs in an attempt to knock him down only to be met with an armoured forearm meeting my skull, I used my Aura to lessen the blow before vaulting to my side Swiping one of _Vindex Umbra's_ blades at Gregory who swatted it away with one armoured gauntlet while unleashing a burst of fire at me with the other. I barrel rolled, narrowly missing it apart from some singeing in my right arm, I lunged once more at Gregory feigning a swing with my staff but actually head butting the larger boy who reeled back with a broken nose as I pressed my advantage, unleashing a series of whirling blows utilising both blades of _Vindex Umbra_ to slash and stab at Gregory both high and low. Gregory continued to back pedal barely able to contain my strikes... and then he smiled and unleashed both gauntlets flame throwers at me. I flipped back and brought up my Aura to shield myself, it was undamaged but I had lost my momentum. Gregory pulled two 30cm daggers and charged me stabbing at me. As good of an offensive weaponmy staff was, I hadn't the slightest idea how to defend with it. I attempted to again kick out Gregory's legs but he jumped the attempt and flipping off _Vindex Umbra's _steel shaft he got behind me and within a second had me in a headlock with a blade to my throat. "Guess I win Simon, better luck next time" Gregory said as he nicked my throat with the blade as a reminder of his victory. sheathing his daggers he left the combat area to get his nose reset. I was left there fuming at my loss, seeing a training dummy near the exit as I walked off the arena I whirled my staff over my head and brought the blade down, slicing it in two diagonally from the where the neck met the right shoulder to the base of the left set of ribs.

At Lunch Gregory sat across from me "Don't feel bad you lost to me today, I was at a Combat school before I ended up here so I have much more experience than you" he said half heartedly, knowing full well that our training here went far beyond what any combat school taught. "I know you're trying to make me feel better Gregory, but really... If I mess up out there, it's not just me who will pay the price, it is all of us. I mean only Five out of the last team they sent came home and three of them died in the infirmary. I DO NOT want that to happen here" I growled gesturing to the other 10 orphans sitting around us at our teams table. Gregory sighed in defeat, knowing how impossibly stubborn I was and how I never changed my mind once it was made. I grabbed up _Vindex Umbra _and headed back out into the combat area where I proceeded to take on the training robots, barely noting the SDC logo on them and how new they looked, almost factory new... or at least they were until they met the pointy end of my staff. I trained non-stop all afternoon ignoring all calls for me as I continued to bombard the training robots with attacks and at times doing defensive exercises, but deciding the mantra "The best defence was a good offence" worked well for me. As darkness fell I finally stopped and trudged back inside. Choosing not to eat dinner I took a quick shower and slunk straight into my bunk. Putting _Vindex Umbra _inter her holder I lay down drifting off into a dreamless sleep. This pattern of me retreating off to train by myself most afternoons persisted for the next three weeks until the day before the final trial we were given the day off in order to pack and organise our gear. I was exhausted and I relished the day off as I polished and sharpened _Vindex Umbra._ Gregory walked up to me and handed me a drink of juice "drink this, it'll help with the nerves" he said as I took the cup and drank, instantly registering the strange taste and burning sensation in my throat. I coughed and looked at him "wh-what was in that?" He merely smirked and ruffled my hair as he walked away handing each member of the team a similar cup. I finished off my cup without coughing it up this time and enjoyed the relaxing feeling that came over me as I continued to clean my weapon and pack my survival kit and lay out my camouflage uniform that we were all mandated to wear when outside of the camp and then headed back to the bunk room.

Upon reaching the bunk room I saw something that I'd never forget: Gregory Volker and Ander Smith drunkenly dancing while some of the others. At this I got angry, snatching up the bottle I threw it out the window, hearing another satisfying smash _'I'll never get tired of breaking things, especially glass things'_ I thought to myself as the music stopped and everyone stopped and stared at me. "Why the fucking hell would you do that Simon you little shit?" Gregory said in annoyance cracking his knuckles, itching for a fight. "WHY? WHY?! because tomorrow we go out into the Grimm Wood, if we go there drunk we will die! How at a time like this could you even think about getting off your faces, leave that until AFTER we get back safe and sound!" I screamed in a very authoritative tone letting my displeasure and sheer anger at their stupidity be obvious. The group of boys and girls in the Bunks all looked at me sheepishly and filed into bed. I merely shook my head and retreated into my bunk and slowly fell asleep.

Early the next morning I was Jostled awake by Gregory who was already clothed and geared "Rise and Shine _Firework _We leave in 55, so get showered and geared" he said as he popped several aspirin, it was obvious he was hung-over. I shook my head and got ready. 50 minutes later I was dressed in forest pattern camouflage and had _Vindex Umbra _slung over my back, sitting in a truck to be taken to the testing area. Everyone was nervous, especially Gregory and Sophia, the eldest, the only ones who had been in a combat school before ending up here and who had become de facto leaders to the younger recruits. It seemed like hours as the truck eventually slowed but didn't stop, it was then that Sir stood up "Ok Ladies and Gents, time to exit... you will jump out of this truck as it is doing 30 clicks down this dirt road NOW GO GO GO!" he shouted as he began pushing us out, I stood up and leapt out at an angle, aiming for and hitting the grassy slope at the side of the road, barrel rolling down and ending up laying in a tangled heap of gear at the bottom, but not injured whatsoever. Getting up and dusting myself off I saw that I had been lucky, Gregory had a gash in his head and Ander had a suspected broken ankle. Gregory grunted he and I supported Ander to get him up into the shade of the forest overlooking the road. Sophia Sighed looking worriedly around as most of our group were either patching themselves up or helping assemble a stretcher for Ander "Well what the fuck are we meant to do now?"

**A/N:**PLEASE READ AND REVIEW PEOPLE! :) also Internet cookies for the first person to spot the RvB reference I dropped in. -CC


	6. The Trial of Death and Life

Chapter Six: The Trial Of Death and Life

Simon's PoV

"Well what the fuck are we meant to do now?" Asked Sophia. With that Simon's jaw dropped  
"What you or Gregory didn't bother to make a plan?" I looked fiercely at my bunk mate who was assisting me to secure Ander to a stretcher and he shrugged  
"Well we didn't exactly have much info to form a plan with Simon, no need to get into a huff like you did last night, we'll be fine" He replied confidently as he could. I rolled my eyes and went back to work on Ander's stretcher "Well we should probably try and find some high ground to get a scope of the area, see if there is a river nearby" I offered as an idea to the obviously overwhelmed older members of the group. "Good idea Simon. Jack, Simon... go forward and find some high ground, scope out the area to find any water courses or structures we can camp at." Gregory barked, I looked at the older boy defiantly "Fuck off I' am going up there Gregory I' am staying here and helping Ander out" I turned back to Ander and helped him up so I could move him to his stretcher. Gregory wanted to yell at me I could tell but he didn't want to start a fight in front of the others, growling he turned to another boy, Levi "Ok Levi, you go with Jack instead Rest up and check your gear until they return, but be ready to move in case they run into trouble." We all nodded and went back to work as the two scouts jogged off up the hill.

About 20 minutes later having finished Ander's stretcher and having gotten him laid on in it I took to checking my gear, disposing of the shattered set of binoculars that got broken in the jump and got pretty pissed when I noticed a chip in one of _Vindex Umbra's_ blades, swearing to take a swipe at whoever decided to boot us out of a moving truck. As I fumed Gregory walked over to me and punched my shoulder "Hey man, thanks for the idea back there... having peoples' lives in my hands is not something I really relish, but did you really need to be such a selfish dick in front of the others? You need to follow my directions because if you won't... who else will?" he said staring off over the road into the grassy glade across from it. I chuckled and faced him "Now let me tell you why I didn't volunteer for it: taking care of myself is all I' am trying to do, survival is my only goal at this point. My idea back there was as much for my benefit as it was for yours, keeping you all alive greatens my chance of getting back to camp and moving onto my next objective up from mere survival. I came up with that Idea because either some abandoned shack or a river is a much more defensible position than sitting out here by a road which could be used by White Fang cells" I replied deadpan and watching the realisation come to Gregory of what I was.  
"So in short you only look out for yourself and those that can aid you? no heroes amongst us then I guess, just a bunch of self serving, self centred arseholes whose objectives seem to overlap at this very moment" he replied implying that my line of thinking was how all 12 of us in the group thought about this situation. "Yeah something like that, it might not be the best way to make things last, but it's certainly the best way to get things done aye?" I chuckled as I flipped the switch for _Vindex Umbra _to collapse into its compact carry mode: The shaft contracted to half its length and the blades collapsed upon themselves and folded under the shaft. once the process was completed I placed the staff into its holder on my back and gathered up my gear "The scouts should be back soon, and Ander will need to be moved and protected, he can't walk on that ankle, it's a shame we don't have any morphine to help with the pain, poor fellow" I said getting a phantom pain in my ankle as I could emphasise with him for what happened. Gregory smirked "So you actually care about Ander's health"  
I rolled my eyes "Of course I care about my team mates and their health, if I got to carry his stretcher I'd much rather him be in a drug induced haze rather than bitching to me every five seconds that the movement bumped his foot wrong and it now hurts, that shit'll drive me around the flipping' bend" I said in mock contempt as I began walking towards the rest of the group in time to see Levi jogging back into the area stopping when he had reached Sophia. "Jack found a small clearing by a stream about 2km into the Grimm Wood, no sightings of Grimm thus far, he sent me back and began making his way there on his own" he said rapid fire without pause for breath. Sophia face palmed at this news  
"That idiots going to get himself killed wandering these woods alone! Levi do you know where this clearing is?" seeing Levi nod while catching his breath she made her plan "Levi you'll lead myself and three others to this clearing to back up jack and secure the area." by this time Gregory and myself had made our way over, with informed guesses of our orders  
"Gregory, Simon you and the others who don't come with Levi and myself will follow behind carrying Ander with you, we'll mark the path to the clearing as Levi shows us the way. understood? good... ok people lets go. Sarah, Tia and Ben with me, the rest follow Gregory." With this she and her team were jogging off into the Grimm Woods following Levi. 

"No offence Gregory, but you're sister makes a much better leader than you... not to mention she is literate." I smirked taking another jab at my friends difficulty at writing which earned me a clip around an ear and an expletive ridden grumble about 'why he bothers being my mate' I shook my head as I lifted my end of Ander's stretcher while Gregory grabbed the other end and called out to our team "ok people follow me and keep your eyes peeled, if anything attacks keep it away from Ander. With that we moved off, as per my prediction progress was slow and filled with pained outbursts from Ander about how much his foot hurt "ouch oh come one guys be a bit more gentle would ya?" Ander bitched for about the 100th time in the last hour, I had had enough "Ander I swear if you bitch about the pain once more, I'll dump your ass out of this stretcher and make you walk unsupported? clear? good, now shut your bitch mouth up" I growled too him. After that the rest of the walk passed in silence, another 30 minutes later we reached the clearing without seeing any Grimm whatsoever and were happy to see a small wooden huntsman's waypoint hut there as well, full of canned and preserved food, ammo, dust and medical/survival gear used by Huntsmen and Huntresses who used to patrol out here before the guerrilla war between the White Fang and Black Fist broke out in the land outside of the major settlements along the Trans-continental Rail Network. I breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Jack shoot out the lock on that door and opening it up for Gregory and I to bring Ander inside. _'Lady luck smiles upon me once more, just got to wait out the week now'_ I thought to myself as we lifted Ander out of his stretcher and onto one of Four beds in the hut and injected him with some of the morphine from the medical cabinet "Now that you have a nice soft bed and some painkillers, I don't want to hear any more bitching out of you ok Ander? or I'll take your foot and your manhood off with Vindex!" I said in mock seriousness, but Ander got the point and agreed not to gripe anymore. With that I took a packet of beef jerky and left the hut and finding a shady spot by the creek to doze off in the afternoon sun.

I was jolted from my siesta by a shake of the shoulder and a scream in my ear that could only be Gregory "Wake up you lazy little shit... Grimm in the woods!" I was alert in an instant and had _Vindex Umbra _out of its holder and set to its gun mode at my hip as I loaded a cartridge pouch from my bandolier into it and rammed the bolt home "Ok where is the Grimm?" I said scanning the area and slowly making my way closer to the hut "Gregory a direction would be helpful right about now!" I barked at my companion who had an assault rifle out, seeing as his daggers and gauntlets didn't do him much good in ranged combat. "To the Left, up the hill in the trees!" came the reply and I swung around to see a pack of Beowolves numbering about three dozen charging down the hill towards our group "Right then, lets see what this baby can do!" I yell as I let fly a burst of tracer fire into the pack of Grimm, felling two of them with multiple headshots. I continue to fire off bursts as my comrades also joined in with their ranged weapons or rifles if they only possessed melee personal weapons but the wolves didn't retreat only continue charging us even as we cut down nearly 20 of them before they got close enough that we had to switch to out to melee weapons lest we accidentally shoot a teammate. Upon hearing the satisfying _click_ of _Vindex Umbra's _blades locking into place I charged the nearest wolf ducking under a swipe from its claws and slashing across its chest with my staff, before spinning on my heel and launching an upwards stabbing motion into the beasts throat to finish the job. Looking around to see that the other Beowolves had been slain to the last I sighed in relief at how easily the Beowolves had gone down, at least I did until the blood curdling scream could be heard from Sophia as she ran to Tia's fallen body; a large chunk from her torso missing from a Beowolf bite, her weapon still impaled in the offending beast that laid yelping a few meters away, It was quickly silenced by a shot from Gregory's rifle. No one cried, no one said a single word. Despite the fact we had all experienced the deaths of our families, we were all in shock at the loss of someone whom had shared every aspect of our lives for two years. it was then we all knew this was for real and that to fuck up meant to die and that's how it would be from now until the time when our luck ran out and we fell in battle. "Ok so who will help me bury her" was the first words that came from the silence, they came from Gregory who had picked up a shovel from nearby. Levi and Sarah stepped forward and went out into the tree line to begin their grim task while the rest of us piled up the wolf corpses and prepared to burn them as to not attract more creatures looking for an easy meal of carrion. Once the grave was prepared we all gathered round and laid Tia to rest, not a word was said during it and we all slunk off to be by ourselves for a while to process what had happened and to try and work out how to handle what would come without any more of us getting killed. I Sighed as sat down beneath the tree I had been dozing under before the fight, I hadn't spent much time with Tia except when her and Sophia were training or hanging out with Gregory and myself in our spare time (not that we had much of it) and I suddenly felt regret at not getting to get to know Tia or the other members of my team beyond Gregory, Levi, Jack and Sophia. Tia had been Sophia's closest friend through training and as I looked across towards the hut to see Sophia crying into her brother's shoulder to which I felt some form of pity and remorse towards my friend and her brother. As the Sun set we set alight the pyre of Beowolf carcases with hopes the flames would ward off any Grimm that maybe lurking nearby as those who remained huddled in the Huntsman's hut and tried to sleep, not that any of us did. Most of us were too afraid or hyped up on adrenaline and nerves to even consider closing our eyes. I Sat in the back corner in the shadows with one of the blankets from the hut wrapped around me and _Vindex Umbra _held protectively to my chest. I jolted upright as I heard the familiar howl of Beowolves in the distance as did everyone else, in the dark I heard weapons being loaded and bolts driving rounds home as we all listened to the howls and breathing a collective sigh of relief as they grew more distant.

3 Days Later

As we exited the hut on the 4th day of our test, having not seen any Grimm since our first skirmish Gregory decided to bring Ander out to get a bit of fresh air as Ander had been bitching again about being cooped up inside. In an attempt to not skull bash Ander Levi and myself began wading across the creek to do a bit of exploring, to search for signs of Grimm on the far side of the creek. "Yo Simmo, how you feeling after the first day? our first taste of combat, went well I think, got myself three Beowolves" he said with exaggerated confidence, trying to hide the fear and pain from losing a team mate. I chuckled weakly, deciding to just go along with it "only three? I got four with my machine gun and then one with my blades. better luck next time Levi." After that awkward exchange we walked along silently for about another 10 minutes before Levi piped up again, this kid always did hate silence with a passion "So Simmo, where do you think we'll end up after this trial finishes?" he asked with genuine curiosity. I thought about it for a moment "We'll probably be split up and sent off to different parts of Atlas, maybe even into different kingdoms, so this trial is probably our last days as a team" I replied deadpan, my eyes still scanning the surrounding forest, before we hear a crash of trees and a Deathstalker comes crashing through the woods chasing a Beowolf, snatching the wolf up in its pincers and severing it in half, discarding one half while waving the other around in its pincer. Levi and I stood perfectly still in both awe and shock at this beast "Well isn't that just a beast and a half" Levi whispered as I resisted the urge to whack him over the head for the horrid pun. Slowly we backed away until Levi tripped over a rock which gained us the attention of the Deathstalker. Levi scampered up and began running as I drew _Vindex Umbra _before following Levi's example of running for it. "Levi you fuck up... if we survive this I' am going to murder you! for getting its attention and your stupid puns!" I yelled to my slightly psychotic friend as he laughed and ran for his life. We reached the creek and saw the rest of the team already armed and ready "KILL IT... KILL IT WITH FIRE!" Levi screamed as we both began wading through the creek closely followed by the Deathstalker. "Gladly!" came the reply from Gregory as he ran towards the massive Grimm, his gauntlets loaded ready to burst forth flame. As he neared it the Deathstalker took a swipe at him, but Gregory merely vaulted himself over the pincers and slide under the Deathstalker's belly unleashing a long burst of flame as he went, charring the underside of the beast as it screeched in pain and tried to move around to get at Gregory with its pincers. But as it Moved to get a shot at Gregory it was instead struck along it's underside again, This time by me firing _Vindex Umbra _up into its unarmoured belly, the Grimm collapsed and died from the onslaught of lead and fire, unfortunately for me, when it collapsed I was still under it. When it fell onto me It squeezed the air out of me "Oh holy shit this fucker is heavy" I cursed under my breath as I began trying to move, only to find myself pinned down. _'Oh fuck so this is how it ends for me? crushed by a fucking fat fucker of a Grimm' _my mind cursed my stupidity at trying to emulate Gregory. But never one to resign myself to anything I kept squirming, trying to inch myself towards the edge of the now dead beast and freedom. It was then I felt the Deathstalker move _'Oh shit, it aint dead, only pissed off' _ as I readied myself to bolt once it the Grimm moved upwards it instead rolled over to reveal my team that had just exhausted themselves trying to lift the beast to get to me. I laughed maniacally with relief "Took you guys long enough, I was beginning to get bored down there" I joked mockingly. "yeah yeah whatever Simmo, just go down to the creek and wash up, you look and smell disgusting" Levi said holding his nose. It was then I noticed the Grimm blood and burnt flesh and the stench that went with it clinging to my clothes. "Ugh fine, as you wish" I said as I waded into the creek, stripping off my uniform shirt and bandolier to avoid my dust cartridges getting spoiled as I cleansed myself of the blood, dirt and gore. That night the group was in much higher spirits than we were for the last few nights as we regaled in the story of today, having scored a victory against such a large Grimm without losing anyone had gotten us all out of the dumps, even Ander was a bit more cheerful having seen our fight today from his stretcher by the hut. As I lay down that night having taken first guard watch in order to get uninterrupted sleep until the morning I found my nerves much more at ease and I had no problem getting to sleep this night.

The Next Day

I awoke early, just after sunrise and went outside, not straying far from the hut to take a walk a little down the creek. about 500m down the creek I heard the sound of something splashing in the water. Ducking behind a bush I looked further downstream, it was then I noticed a Faunus girl, about my age gathering up some fishing traps, laden with fish. As I began to back away, hoping that lady luck will smile upon me and allow me to get away unseen I slipped on some river rocks and went arse over head into the freezing cold water. This startled the girl who sat there frozen in panic as I stood up cursing with every swear I knew as freezing water soaked through my camouflage uniform down to my very bones which left me shivering as well as cursing. I looked up to see The girl just sitting there giggling innocently, I began laughing as well and waded out of the freezing creek only to be offered a blanket by the young Faunus. "Thank-you, I really needed that. So what brings you all the way out here into the Grimm Wood?" I asked in genuine curiosity about why a lone Faunus would be out here. "My family lives out here, so do many other Faunus, places like this are the only place that we can exist in peace from harassment from the Kingdom's governments and the Black Fist." She replied, it was then she noticed the Velcro patch on my shoulder with a Black Fist emblem embroidered onto it as well as _Vindex Umbra _strapped to my back. Her face went from curious humour at my sudden appearance and fall into the creek to horror at the fact I was the enemy. "D-don't hurt me, please... I' am not at member of the White Fang, nor is my family." she said fearfully. I shook my head "I don't kill innocent unarmed people or Faunus, only those who try to harm me... and that is a big list already which I'd prefer not to add to" I replied slowly and cautiously as I drew _Vindex Umbra _and placed it onto the ground "See, unarmed, I mean no harm to you." The Faunus girl looked relieved "I didn't know the Black Fist recruited so young, you couldn't be more than 15" She said still uneasy about what I was. "Actually I' am 14, and I've been with the Fist since I was 12." I replied sitting down next to her "By the way, the names Simon." I said holding my hand out in greeting, inside my head my conscience happy that it had won out over my anger which wanted to cut down the Faunus girl and take her food. "My names Alia and I' am 15, pleased to meet you, even if you wear the uniform of Faunus haters" Alia replied accepting my hand and shaking it. I decided to let the remark on my uniform and the Black Fist slide. We talked for about an hour, about our friends, about Alia's family and home at the edge of the Grimm Wood, I showed her _Vindex Umbra _and bragged on how I'd designed and forged it myself. All the while my conscience was slowly convincing me that I had been wrong to throw all Faunus into the same lot as the White Fang. "SIMON, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Came the call from Gregory in the distance, obviously I had lost track of time. "Oh fuck, Alia, you need to get out of here. I don't think my friends would be as welcoming of you as I' am." I stood and handed her the basket and her blanket back. "Ok Simon, It was nice to meet you, maybe we'll meet again soon." as she turned to leave I grabbed her arm. "Remember don't tell ANYONE you saw me, or the consequences for a lot of people could be dire." I said in a low serious growl. Alia nodded and ran off into the woods along a faint, well hidden path. I Smiled as I saw her run away, a small piece of innocence and humanity returning to my heart and my constant anger and hate flowing out. I was smiling like an idiot when my team found me. "Christ Simon, you gave us a fucking heart attack when you weren't at the hut" Levi snapped at me, clipping across the ears.  
"Oh sorry guys, just lost track of time and I needed time to dry off, as I took an impromptu dip into the water" I replied sheepishly pointing to my still damp uniform. Levi and Gregory laughed to the point of choking "Nice one you dunce, next time try not to do that this early, you'll get pneumonia" Gregory said clipping me across the ears much as Levi had. "Ok let's get you back to the Hut" Levi said as they turned and began walking back to the hut me still shivering, following along behind them.

It had been an uneventful day, We had seen a pair of Nevermore in the distance engaged in an aerial dogfight but neither of them came close enough to cause us trouble. It is a sight we all would remember until the day we died and it left us with more stories to tell that night as we sat down to eat dinner just as dusk fell on Day 5 of our trial, we were all relaxed and in high spirits engaged in a conversation about who would win out of a Deathstalker and a King Taijitu , everyone was just beginning on the snake Grimm when out of nowhere machinegun fire began riddling the hut. We all dove to the ground clutching our weapons "What the actual fuck if going on!" Gregory yelled as he dove down next to me. A scream was heard, we all feared someone had been hit "Don't worry it's just me, I rolled out of bed and landed on my fucking ankle" came the pained reply from Ander who was still cursing under his breath. "Bro if we stay here, we die. we NEED to get out of this hut" Sophia yelled as she jumped up and vaulted herself through window, but she never made it. The moment her head popped up out of the window, it exploded from a round hitting her. she slumped half in the hut, half hanging out the window. I looked over to Gregory, who was positively livid at seeing his sister die, a jet black Aura permeated around him as he charged right out the front door in a blind rage. A red-white glow surrounded me as I followed Gregory close behind, the glow deflecting bullets off of our Auras, but it was draining on us. I drew _Vindex Umbra _and set it to machine gun mode and began firing on the muzzle flashes around the tree line, hearing several satisfying screams. By now the rest of the team had filed out of the hut, just in time to see a rocket hit it, destroying it. The fireball that erupted lit up the area, we saw our Faunus attackers clear as day force their eyes into their hands as the flash temporarily blinded them due to their enhanced night vision multiplying the brightness of the flash. Using this to our advantage we all charged, well except me as I was content with unleashing tracer fire upon the would-be attackers, taking down four of them before their vision returned.

I saw two coming towards me, vaulting and flipping like wannabe ninjas. I flipped the switch and heard the satisfying sound of blades extending and clicking into place and my cartridge pouch dropping to the ground. I stood side on, my _Vindex Umbra_ held horizontally on my left side as I saw the two attackers draw sabres and charge me. I leaped to the one closing in on my right side, the first attacker who I now saw was clad in White Fang uniform complete with Grimm mask raised his sabre and struck down towards me, I took a knee and blocked the blow with one of my staff's blades and pushed it the blade to the right as I commando rolled left as the 2nd attacker closed in and tried to stab me from behind but missed due to my roll. I regained my feet and faced both my attackers. We circled each other for about 10 seconds and I lunged in again with a series of whirling blows, aiming low with one blade before immediately twirling _Vindex Umbra _in my hands to bring the other blade to bare with a downwards blow at the opponents shoulder which he blocked. With our weapons locked together and both of us wrestling to get the upper hand, the 2nd attacker lunged at me. Seeing this I ducked and launched myself into a back flip over the 2nd attacker, landing behind him I quickly spun on my heel and performed a horizontal slash at the 2nd attacker who hadn't quite gotten around yet. My blade struck home just above the attackers hip but below the rib cage, shredding through the soft tissue of his abdomen. The first White Fang attacker seeing his friend fall charged me unleashing a quick volley of strikes which I barely defended. On the back foot and the defensive I back peddled, not seeing the root behind me, I stumbled and lost my grip on _Vindex Umbra. _As the attacker came in for the killing blow, a dagger impaled itself into his throat, felling the attacker I looked up to see a bruised and battered Gregory, Blood spilling out of a gash in his cheek bone smile and give me a thumbs up as he ran past and retrieved his dagger before charging another White Fang soldier. I grabbed _Vindex Umbra _and charged back into the fray. catching a White Fang soldier off guard, he never saw the blade coming behind him that separated his head from his shoulders. I moved onto the next who carried a double bladed staff much like mine. We traded blows alternating blades. Both of us trying to use spins, kicks and flips to gain an advantage. After a good minute of trading and blocking blows I kick the Faunus in the groin with my steel toed combat boot and vault backwards, transforming _Vindex Umbra _into its gun mode in mid air, As I land I load a cartridge pouch and slam a round home, unleashing a burst of at least 30 rounds into the Faunus, still disoriented from the boot to the balls. The attacker fell limp as Gregory finished off the last attacker with a burst of flame about 30 metres away. I slumped against a tree and looked around the clearing, now a mess of flame and bodies. I saw only 5 from our group apart from me left standing. missing were Ander, Jack, Sophia, Jacob and Samuel. "Gregory, Where's Ander? did her make it out of the Hut?" Gregory looked over to me and simply looked away, that was all I needed to answer my question. Levi walked up to me and sat next to me "How did they find us? We hadn't seen any traces of look outs or White Fang in our area as we made our way here from the peak." He said between puffs, looking dirty and exhausted. I pondered this and as much as I already knew the answer, my conscience screamed at me not to admit it or take action to avenge the betrayal. But I silenced my conscience, as every time I listened to it, people around me got hurt or died. I stood and picked up _Vindex Umbra_ and a pistol from one of the White Fang soldiersand began walking into the forest. "Simon, where are you going?" Gregory and Levi called. "To set this right Gregory, don't follow me, this is something I must do alone. Try to find a working radio and call Sir, they will need to know of the White Fang activity here." I call back before disappearing into the night.

Finding the path and following it was easy enough, it led me parallel to the creek for about 5km which I covered in less than an hour. It led me to a group of about 6 small houses. As I edged closer I Saw Alia and her family sitting down for dinner through an open kitchen window along with them was a man wearing White Fang uniform minus the Grimm Mask. Moving towards the front of the house I saw two guards at the door, slowly I raised my pistol and fired two quick shots, one entering each guards skulls. I Quickly charged inside and reached the kitchen Smacking the White Fang officer in the face with the pistol, knocking him unconscious before aiming it at the family who sat frozen in fear of the bloodied, singed and dirty person who had violently invaded their home. "Now now Alia, didn't I say the consequences would be dire for a lot of people if you told anyone about me or my friends?" I asked in a numb, deadpanned voice that hid the boiling anger I was currently feeling. The little girl merely nodded her Father then stood and boomed at me "How dare you intrude our peace, we were merely doing what was needed to protect our territ..." He never finished his sentence as a bullet entered his throat and he fell to the ground drowning in his own blood. "Stupid old man" I spat at him before turning my gun on the two women "Alia, because you couldn't keep your mouth shut: Five of my friends are now dead, as is every White Fang soldier that was sent our way, the two guards outside, your father!" I screamed at the two women. "I' am so so sorry Simon, I didn't think my parents would tell the White Fang when they came to pick up their monthly supply consignment" Alia pleaded. I looked on emotionlessly  
"Well sorry doesn't cut it for the five friends I lost tonight, Sorry Alia... It's only vengeance" I fired off two more rounds, one for the mother and one for Alia, finishing off my revenge for my friends. I searched the house and found a store of volatile dust powder. upon spreading it out all over the house and towards the entrance, I lit a match and threw it into the house before running. to escape the explosion the rocked the area, destroying the house and all those inside it. I walked back along the path towards the hut I felt nothing, nothing except a burning hate and distrust for all Faunus, not just those who fight against humanity openly or who played a part in my families death.

As I returned to what remained of the Hut and saw Gregory burying his sister. Upon looking at me and seeing the steely look in my eye, he knew I had taken vengeance upon but also knew I'd never share the details, we merely nodded to acknowledge each other's presence and that we had survived. "I radioed base and explained to them what happened, the nearest Black Fist unit, The 6th Noble Company, 117th Regiment is 20km away and will be here by sun up" Gregory said as he slumped against a tree, his arms shaking in both shock and rage. I clasped my hand on his shoulder "Bro, we'll get the White Fang back for this many times over before this ends, I promise you that." He nodded and we sat in silence for the rest of that night. As the Sun rose we heard the sound of engine motors as several trucks and armed cars pulled up around the hut and Black Fist soldiers swamped the area. Two officers walked up to Gregory and myself "I 'am Major Donavon Looks like you guys had one hell of a fight, It's a shame you lost so many friends, I on behalf of the 6th Noble extend our condolences." The taller silver haired officer said shaking both our hands. "We'll finish securing the area and flushing out any Faunus scum in the area. You guys are being sent back to the base you came from. The truck over to your left is your transport, off you go" Donavon said pointing out the truck. Gregory, Levi, Myself and the other three, Sarah, Alex and Ben who also survived got into the back of the truck and sat silently as it drove us back to the training base, upon reaching it the other teams who also trained there looked upon us in awe and pity as we jumped off, bruised, battered, bloodied and half the team we once were.

Sir stomped up to us looking angrier than he had ever been "HOW DARE YOU CALL FOR HELP... HOW DARE YOU USE THAT RADIO AND CUT YOUR TRIAL SHORT! I GOT A MIND TO SEND YOU BACK OUT THERE UNARMED!" he bellowed at us, which earned him an upper cut from Gregory's armoured fist. "Oh shut up you pompous old fool!" and we all passed the training instructors unconscious form as a group, our faces steeled, passive, showing no emotion as we were stopped by a group of high ranking Black Fist members and the camp commander. "I' am Brigadier Carvel, Commanding officer of the 117th Regiment. Well congratulations are in order, we have been searching for that cell of White Fang for some months, seemed they thought you easy prey." A man wearing a worn and battered Atlas military uniform with several medal ribbons said as his aide walked up holding several scrolls. handing one to each of the survivors, except me. "These scrolls hold your new postings across Atlas where you will fight alongside the more conventional forces that the Black Fist have fielded to rid this world of the scourge of the White Fang and ensure human dominance for decades to come. "Umm Brigadier, where is my scroll?" I asked spreading my palms to emphasise that they are empty, only for a scroll to be thrown into them from the shadows of the alley between buildings we were standing near. Looking up I saw a cigar light up "Oh hello again there kid, you've grown since I last saw you" came a familiar voice that I identified as none other than Roman Torchwick, red bangs, bowler hat, weaponised pimp can and all. "Oh fuck, This can't possibly end well for me can it?" I said not knowing what to expect from Roman. "Aren't you glad to see me? not even a 'Hello'? I' am disappointed in you Simon" came the reply in the same condescending voice I remember from that alley. I merely grunted "Well what do you want Roman?"  
"Same thing you want Simon, The Faunus who killed your parents and the police officers you sheltered with afterwards." Roman said smirking. A fire began to burn in My eyes and rage filled my soul, finally my chance at revenge, the only thing I craved more than survival. An opportunity to make things right by killing those who killed my parents. As Roman and I walked away from my former team and the other members of the Black fist towards a waiting Bullhead airship "Roman, I know I told you this two years ago, but I' am in."

**A/N: **This is the single biggest single chapter I have ever written, I feel pretty proud about that. Hope those of you who are reading this enjoy a bit, well a lot of darkness... because that's where Simon is headed. remember to please review if you liked it, or even if you didn't. 

-CC Signing off for now.


	7. A New Team, A New Mission

**A/N: **BEST EPISODE SO FAR! is all i really have to say about this week's RWBY. Anyone who Ships Bumblebee probably had fits of joy at Blake and Yang. Though Arkos shippers are probably not feeling so warm and fuzzy inside (more likely wanting to ram Jaune's head through a brick wall). But my personal favourite thing was poor Ren, the sexual tension between him and Nora is so damned thick haha. especially with Ren stuck in front of Nora in nothing but a towel (almost certainly coping gazes from Nora). Now without anymore ranting about this week's episode from me, here is Chapter 7 of "From Hunted to Hunter."

Chapter Seven: A New Team, A New Mission .

It had been a long, boring, silent ride aboard the Bullhead. Roman busied himself on his scroll and making phone calls, putting together plans or taking care of whatever side business he runs while helping out the Black Fist, I wasn't stupid I knew Roman was in this for personal gain, not loyalty to humanity or revenge like I was and would almost certainly be running some scam on the side for Lien. I on the other hand sat staring out of the Bullhead's open side. It was the first time I had ever flown before, and I don't like it one bit, I was terrified of falling and of heights. This led to me fidgeting a lot and trying to find something else to look at rather than out to the ground some 100m below which failed miserably so i conceded defeat and tried to enjoy the view and my first flight. Finally as the sun was setting and i was getting airsick from no longer seeing the horizon the Bullhead reached the summit of a plateau nestled in the Atlesian Alps well hidden among the other taller mountains and the snowy forests that covered the area. upon this summit were three more Bullheads under covered shelters to protect from the elements and several demountable buildings. The Bullhead landed on the marked and lit landing pad, as soon as it ceased moving I jumped out, ran off the landing pad and threw up what little there was in my stomach in an extremely violent fashion. "Oh look, the poor bastard's airsick, didn't you provide barf bags Roman?" I heard a voice in the background.  
"Ha Shauno, didn't you hear, Roman traded the barf bags for money bags, which he didn't share with us." came a 2nd voice. Having emptied my stomach i stood up and headed towards the demountable building that several people had gathered at including Roman. "Right then kid, now that you're no longer making an ass of yourself, I'll leave you with a part of the hopefully more than capable team I have assembled, I on the other hand have work to do, Try not to blow anything up like the last time I brought a new arrival" Roman said in his most condescending tone with that he turned around and swaggered off twirling his pimp cane as he smoked a cigar.

I Turn to see two men, who looked to be in their mid to late twenties wearing white snow suits. One held a Sniper rifle hefted over his shoulder and the other had an assault rifle in his hands and a shotgun slung across his back. "Well looks like the new thief... umm i mean procurer of goods which are not his has finally arrived" The sniper wielding soldier said as both of them began to chuckle at their own stupid joke. "Whatever, now before you assholes try to insult me again, mind at least telling me your names and getting me out of the cold" I replied still feeling sick and irritated, as well as now cold due to the snow, altitude and my lack of warm gear. "Oh what do you think Shauno? should we let the little urchin in? or make him sleep outside like the little runaway he is" The rifle and shotgun wielding Soldier joked only to be interrupted by the sound of blades and shaft extending and locking into place then the metal shaft of _Vindex Umbra _being rammed into his throat forcing him into the wall of the building "Mate, I don't know if you're really this much of an asshole, or just putting extra effort for me. But I have just lost six of my friends in the last week, fought for my life against the White Fang and butchered the family that told the Fang where to find us. And yet you think that it's still a good idea to annoy me?! One more smartass remark and I WILL gut you.. got it!" I yelled at the man and pushed hard onto his throat before backing away and letting him slump down to the ground. The Shauno, the other soldier opened up the door "Up the Hallway, last door on the right is your room. Try to wake up in a better mood, otherwise we're going to have problems you little shit, now out of my sight" he said in a angry, threatening tone. I didn't say anything, merely putting _Vindex Umbra _back onto my back, picking up my bags and walking inside, totally ignoring the other members of the team sitting in what looked to be a kitchenette and common area who had heard the scuffle outside. upon reaching my room i found that i had it to myself, smiling weakly at that small mercy (for whoever would have had to bunk with me) I locked the door, dumped my gear, stripped off and crashed into bed, falling asleep within moments.

I woke up the next morning groggy and covered in a cold sweat. I suddenly felt very alone and very afraid in the unfamiliar and tiny room, It took me a moment to remember the day before and that I was no longer bunking with Gregory, Levi and Jack. Looking at my watch that showed 5:22am I groaned as I remembered by scuffle with Shauno and his mate "Oh hell, I' am going to owe them one hell of an apology for that" I muttered to myself as i dressed into another set of camo clothes, still shivering from the lack of warmth they provided and opened up the door to find several sets of folded white-gray pants and jacket with hood, taking the pile inside and changing out of the dull green, brown and black splotchy camo and into the new white-gray pattern I felt much warmer and instantly felt my mood improve drastically. Walking out into the common area I saw Seven similarly clad men at a table that seemed to be playing cards who all turned to look at me, sizing me up before the one from last night stood up, towering over me by nearly a foot and held his hand out to shake it "After you locked yourself in your room, we were told what happened during your teams trial in the Grimm Wood, I guess Shauno and I were acting like a couple of Assholes. The names Kale by the way, Shauno and I will be your cover on missions." He said ashamed at his conduct last night. I accepted and shook his hand and took a seat around the table looking at the men carefully, most of them looked in their 20's or 30's, a couple of them looked older. I was offered a cup of coffee by Shauno who took his seat, the eldest looking of the group stood up "Right well let's get to introductions, I'am Captain Ty Kruger and this bunch of degenerates is The Rum Squad, you have already met Corporals Shaun Morgan and Kale Smyth That make up our scout sniper team, despite being the most impatient dumbasses I have ever met and unfortunately as Shauno said last night they will be the ones you work most closely with they are competent snipers/spotters. The others in the team are Corporal David Sanderson and Privates Danny Wagner, Lachlan McLean and Luke Coleman. You are the 8th and final member of the squad, picked because according to the report your instructors sent: you're an accomplished thief of food, equipment as well as a competent picker or smasher of locks." The old Captain looked up at me smirking, I looked down sheepishly "Well I couldn't help it if the instructors kept the best food and gear to themselves, my team needed the food and gear more than they did those stupid fat fucks." At the last remark about the camps training staff the squad fell down laughing "Oh I didn't see that one coming, can we keep him Capt." Shauno said between gasps for air, the atmosphere of tension that had been created last night vanishing in an instant as we all felt more at ease. "Right then Kale, Shauno. Take Simon out into the forest, see how he handles the snow and the cold. Bring him back about 10 tonight." Captain Kruger ordered despite the groans and bitching from the two marksmen. As they draped themselves in their white-gray cloaks and picked up their weapons "Come on kid, time to teach you how to lay in the snow like a sniper and not get your balls frozen off" Shauno grunted, trying to cheer himself up with humour.

By the time we got into the Forest it was about 6am and the sun was just beginning to shine through the mountain mist, I had to admit it was beautiful up here despite the fact it was cold, the snow was wet and downright miserable to trudge through with it up to my knees. Not at all like what I had been led to believe it was like by the movies i watched as a kid. After the first hour of stumbling through the snow the snipers stopped and began laughing "Ok Shauno he's had enough, give them to him" Kale said as Shauno reached into his pack and grabbed out a set of snowshoes for me, like the ones they wore. My Jaw dropped "you motherfuckers, that isn't cool, I can barely feel my legs right now!" I yelled at them as i extricated myself from the knee deep snow and put on the snow shoes, suddenly not sinking into the snow i breathed a sigh of relief, turning to my poor excuses for instructors "Anything else you got in that bag for me that's going to help me out here?" Shauno merely shrugged and began walking again with me following behind walking in a much more relaxed manner. Over the course of the next five hours I was taught several basic rules of snow survival and how to move quietly, quickly and efficiently over snowy terrain. As we stopped for lunch made up of soup from and coffee that Kale had brought with him. "So what's the story behind you guys? You obviously aren't former Atlesian Military like Captain Kruger and a lot of other Black Fist members i know, but you do seem to know what you're doing survival wise." I asked, wanting to try and break the ice a bit more with these guys. The two snipers looked at each other. "Well before Roman offered us a good deal of Lien for our services, we actually worked for the Schnee Dust Company in their Special Security Branch, basically their own private army to protect their Dust trains and refineries by pre-emptively targeting the White Fang members who we had identified as going to commit acts against SDC." Shauno commented, for once saying something serious.  
"Most of the fighters in the Black Fist are either ex-Atlesian military, who are unhappy with the restraints that are placed on them when it comes to dealing with the White Fang, that is that they can only defend settlements and infrastructure, not actively attack the Fang. Or are residents in the outer settlements and colonies of the kingdoms who have had to put up with Faunus aggression since before the Faunus War with a few ex-Huntsmen and Huntresses turned rogue. Despite the illusion of peace in the cities where the army keeps violence to a minimum, there is a real war going on in the wilderness between the Faunus Represented by the White Fang with an unknown amount of fighters and the residents of the colonies and settlements represented by the Black Fist which numbers some 6000 members across the Kingdoms of Atlas." Kale chimed in as he finished his soup.  
I nodded, then frowned at how expansive this war was, across the kingdom involving thousands of men and women. Kale and Shauno stood and I got up to follow only to be signalled to stop "Wait here 10 minutes, we're going see how good you are at a bit of hide and seek, oh and in this version ,you get shot at" Shauno said as he racked the bolt on his sniper rifle. My eyes widened as they disappeared into the white abyss that was the snow covered forest. 10 minutes later I was sneaking as quietly as i could through the snow, trying to blend in using my white camo, but being not used to snow I ended up stumbling several times, until one time out of nowhere there was a loud _CRACK _as a bullet flew just over my head and blew the tree behind me into nothing but bits of twig "Oh fuck, you crazy assholes... you nearly killed me!" I yelled in the general direction the that the offending bullet came from and dashed behind a fallen tree gasping for air due to the thinner air in the high mountains. As I tried to catch my breath another bullet whistled above my head, _'oh come on, this is bullshit' _my mind fumed to myself as more well aimed sniper rounds flew in. Deciding to approach this tactfully, I began crawling across the ground parallel to the direction of the shots were coming until they stopped whizzing over my head. _'Good, means they have lost sight of me' _a small smirk came over my face as i began crawling towards the direction that the shots came. After about 30minutes of crawling I arrived at a small divot in a pile of dirt and several shell casings, it was Obvious they had moved. _'Of course they aren't that dumb' _I thought to myself just as both Sniper and Assault rifle rounds smacked into the snow mound in front of me "Oh come on, no fair! That's it, Fuck this!" I yelled and Vaulted over the mound, my Red-White Aura deflecting rounds, I zeroed in on the muzzle flashes, zigzagging using trees as cover from the fire concentrating on not stumbling over the snowshoes I wore. As I drew closer I saw Shauno take the shotgun from Kale's back and start lobbing buckshot at me, impossible to dodge but easy to mitigate with my aura, I flipped into their hide _Vindex Umbra _drawn and slammed the staff into Kale's throat, causing him to clutch his throat for breath and Shauno to drop the shotgun. "Ok Ok, we surrender. Damn where'd you learn to summon an aura like that, I thought that sort of thing was only taught in combat schools and academies." Shauno said as he stepped over to Kale to check on him. Just as i was about to answer him, Kale's radio crackled "Playtime is over kiddies, meeting in the HQ building in 45, Be there or I'll feed you to McLean to use as his punching bags." Kruger's voice crackled. Shauno helped Kale up and we all began walking back, wondering what was in store for us.

40 Minutes later we sat in the warm HQ building as Roman walked in holding his scroll "Ah if it isn't my bunch of currently useful and overly expensive degenerates. Well it is time to earn your pay checks, well except for Simon who doesn't get one, sorry kid but revenge will have to suffice for payment" He said condescending as ever as he twirled the pimp cane in his hands. "The target you're to hit Is a recently abandoned Atlesian Arm's Corporation facility that studied experimental battle-bots, But now the White Fang is in there plundering it of its Dust stores and armouries, Team's Whiskey and Bourbon Will handle the Dust stores and Armoury, Rum Squad" Roman face palmed with regret at letting the three Captains pick their squad names before continuing "Rum Squad as I was saying will attack the control room and hold it while Simon and I retrieve the contents of Its computer mainframe." Roman said linking diagrams of the facility to our scrolls, I was Only half way interested, wanting information on Who killed my parents, not liberating some stupid research facility, though the opportunity to kill more White Fang did appeal to me greatly, a small revenge for my lost family and friends, I wondered how Gregory and Levi were getting on with their new posts, wherever they ended up. "Ok people, Let's go, there is Lien to be made and White Fang to slay" Came Roman's voice piercing my wondering mind which snapped me back to the present. With that we all left the building and went to gather the appropriate gear, seeing as we were apparently going down into the lowlands out of the snow, which i was thankful for... what I was less happy about was having to do more flying. Within 5 minutes of taking off, I was air sick again, much to the disdain of the rest of Rum Squad who was sharing the Bullhead with me, but at least this time i didn't vomit as I still had the horizon in my sight and the Bullhead was flying just above the trees so there wasn't much height from the ground. It was mid-afternoon when we arrived at our insertion point about 5km from the facility. But we didn't move from there and i was held back as I began to jog towards it "Hold up Simon, those Faunus have the advantage at night, they can see clear as day at night, If you want to get the jump on them, you need to hit 'em right at sunrise or sunset and hit 'em hard, fast and with copious amounts of flares" Kruger advised me. I merely shrugged "Well back in the Grimm Wood, my team took out many Faunus at night." I fired back, but my protest was Ignored and so I found a tree and laid against it, deciding to get some sleep, knowing I'd need all my energy for what was to come.

**A/N: **So i decided to take a break from the main plot in order to introduce and expand on some new characters as well as elaborate on the AU that my mind has come up with. But next chapter I'll be back with More Action and more plot. I hope that my readers enjoy this... and I always welcome compliments, advice and constructive criticism of my work :) enjoy your week CC Signing off.


	8. A Quest for Revenge Pt1

Chapter Eight: A Quest for Revenge Pt1.

As night fell I was awoken by Cpt. Kruger and we began to walk towards the facility, the other squads taking different routes towards the Dust storage and armouries. I walked about 100m ahead of the others ducking from shadow to shadow, moving silently just as we had been taught back at the training camp, but I didn't let my mind wander this time as I was entirely focused on trying to spot any Faunus through the Night Vision Goggles that Kruger had given me while also not letting the lack of depth perception result in me going arse over head. It was about midnight when we arrived at a ridge overlooking the facility about 500m away, all the outside lights around it were out, though we could see lights on inside the buildings. Shauno and Kale set up their sniper rifles and attached the thermal scopes "Oh yeah... those warm blooded Faunus are lit up like Christmas trees through this baby" Shauno whispered gleefully. "Ok Shauno, Kale... keep watching the Faunus down there, try to map out their movements and patrol patterns. The rest of you, relax and wait... we hit them just at Dawn." Kruger whispered as he carefully eased himself down against the nearest tree and pulled out his radio, no doubt to ask the other squads where they were. Roman was keeping to himself and grumbling, obviously loathe that he had to come into the field like this and get his hands dirty, which i personally found hilarious to see him in worn out camo clothes and black face paint instead of his expensive, well cut suit and bowler hat, he looked over to me and growled dangerously as I stifled a chuckle at his discomfort and looked away.

Looking to my other squadies that I hadn't really met yet: I saw Lachlan McLean sharpening a bayonet and polishing his rifle atop his head was a Maroon beret, looking very battered and worn. I sat watching him expertly take apart, clean and reassemble his rifle and pistol, eventually he looked up at and saw me looking on curiously he sighed and patted the ground next to him, signalling for me to go sit with him, which i did. He began to talk absentmindedly as he cleaned his various pieces of kit "I' am guessing you want to know my story? seeing as you were so interested in Shauno's and Kale's. You know kiddo, I remember reading about what happened to your parents in the paper, I was a young Private in the Vale Defence Force's 1st Mobile Regiment with Four years of experience under my belt seeing some pretty horrific things, but what happened to Dr Anthony and his wife shocked me and the rest of our guys pretty badly as did having to respond to the police station you were sheltering at the night after. It only got worse from then on, more and more White Fang attacks on population centres, bombings, shootings, assassinations, hostage scenarios. It got to a point that Vale City was put into Lockdown, thousands of troops, police and dozens of Huntsmen and Huntresses swarmed everywhere detaining every Faunus in sight. After about a year of essentially Martial Law came the Battle of Ruben Field, pretty much the White Fang with its ranks swelled by pissed off Faunus as well as several hundred rouge Atlesian Knight battle mechs took the Vale Defence Force on in open field, Well we got slaughtered, 3 in every 4 men that entered the field that day never lived to leave it. My squad got ambushed by several Faunus, of the 12 of us, only 3 got out alive and unharmed. But despite the setbacks and another 6 months of bitter fighting, we managed to set up perimeters 100km in radius around Vale City and the other major cities free of White Fang as well as putting together a line of outposts along the rail lines to protect them and the adjoining settlements from attack, after that the government decided to just leave it at that and focus on the people in the city and relaxing restrictions on Faunus, treating them like equals, Disgusting, a disgrace on the memory of all those who fought at Ruben Field. So I deserted and eventually linked up with the Black Fist, for pay back for what happened to my squad you know. But you, you and what happened to your family is what set everything off, all you see around you was started by those animals murdering your parents and torching your home. So I guess it is only fitting you're here taking the fight to the Faunus." He said in a deadpan voice, not once looking away from his weapon. I sat there kind of stunned, I was not expecting this level of openness or seriousness from a member of Rum Squad having seen Shauno and Kale's sarcasm, Kruger's cynicism and Roman's Condescendence.

Speaking of Roman, I smirked evilly and took out one of the preserved meals labelled _MRE: No4. Cheese and Vegetable Omelette_ that I had brought with me, for the exact reason of tormenting Roman. McLean saw what I had and realised my plan. Giving me a thumbs up and a Wink as I stood up and walked over to Roman. "Hey Roman, you look hungry after that 5km walk, bet it's been a long time since you did that much exercise" I said sarcastically. Roman merely sneered at me  
"What do you want kid? This better be good" he said grumpily as he tightened his grip on his pimp cane _Melodic Cudgel. _I simply waved it off "I merely decided that you could use a bite to eat so I got this from my ration kit" I said deadpanned as I handed him the brown bag and slowly backed away, taking care to keep my face even. By this time the other members of the Squad including Kale and Shauno up on their perch on the ridge line above us watched eagerly for Roman to take the first bite. Roman who was too tired and hungry to realise what he was about to consume took a massive scoop and shoved it in his mouth. Instantly Roman looked turned green and turned around vomiting into a bush behind him, once he finished he chugged down his entire water bottle and then proceeded to throw the brown bag at me. The rest of us were choking on silent laughter at seeing Roman eat the dreaded omelette and a series of thumbs up and hi5's were sent my way as Roman continued to gag on the taste that seemed to cling in his throat.

After this we all (Roman excluded) were much more relaxed, even managing to get a couple of hours sleep until we were awoken by Kruger at 4am. "Ok ladies, time to go earn our pay" he said as he kicked us from our sleep, taking care to kick Roman extra hard in his tailbone much to Roman's consternation at being targeted like that by both Kruger and myself. As we packed away our gear and gathered up what we would need for the attack Kruger was up silently talking to Kale and Shauno undoubtedly about the guards patrol patterns. by 4:15 we were moving silently down the hill, ducking quietly from tree to tree, minimising our time in the open that we could get seen by the Faunus. It was about 4:45 by the time we managed to crawl to a small defilade at the fence to the facility, now we just waited for the other squads to attack at 5am. It was a tense 15 minutes as we laid against the slope just outside the perimeter fence. Then out of nowhere the sounds of explosions cut into the morning stillness from the other side of the facility as the other Squads began attacking the dust storage and armouries, yet still we waited as more and more of the White Fang guards began to move away from the command bunker and towards the fire fight, all except two guards near the door. Kruger peeked up and saw the remaining guards, picking up his radio and calling Shauno and Kale "Two guards by the command bunker entrance, need them taken down so we can get a quiet entry into the complex" the captain whispered. "Wait One, lining up the shots" Came the reply as about 10 seconds later what sounded like one shot rang out, but it was in fact two simultaneous shots and both the guards collapsed, their chests nothing but a bloody, gooey mess. Lachlan then proceeded to cut open the fence and we slipped in, heading to the command bunker entrance. We stopped at the door way as Lachlan placed an explosive charge on the door blowing it open. "Ok Simon, you and Roman head to the mainframe to begin the data transfer. The rest of us will make our way to the security station and hold off any White Fang that come back this way from fighting the other Squads. Now let's move people, we don't have all day!" Kruger barked as Roman and I peeled off from the main group and headed down the appropriate hallway according to the schematics we had been provided with.

Finding the mainframe was easy enough, I peeked around the corner and saw three White Fang guarding it, obviously very much on edge. two were armed with rifles and the other had a tomahawk in each hand, they turned my way, obviously smelling or hearing me and i quickly ducked back behind the corner as several bullets passed where I had just been. I barrel rolled around the corner, with _Vindex Umbra _out in its gun mode at my hip as I took a knee and fired at the Faunus, taking one down but the other two deflected rounds with their Aura _'Well fuck, this just got more difficult' _I thought to myself as I turned to Roman "Ok Roman, time to put that pimp cane to good use, Follow me!" I yelled as I charged the rifle wielding Faunus, extending the blades on my weapon and launched into a downwards strike onto the Faunus, who blocked it with his rifle. Drawing my weapon back, I twirled on my heel counter-clockwise and put all my weight behind a horizontal slash, once again the Faunus tried to block it with his rifle, but the blade of my staff cut straight through his rifle and struck him in his mid thigh, getting lodged in his femur. The Faunus howled in pain as I yanked back on my staff, extricating the blade from his leg. I raised _Vindex Umbra _ above my head, twirling it in my hands to reposition my grip from the centre of the staff to the rear end of it and brought it down on the still reeling Faunus like a sword, entering at the point where the left shoulder met his neck and continued the strike down, exiting at the base of the ribcage on the right side, his body split in two along the diagonal cut. I turned my attention to the tomahawk wielder who was busy fighting Roman. Just was I was about to charge in, Roman got a good strike onto the Faunus' temple, stunning him and then raised the pimp cane and shot a round right into the chest of the Faunus who had been unable to raise an Aura due to him being stunned by the blow to his head. I let out a low whistle "Good Roman, But I took out 2 to your 1" I said smirking. Roman blew a red bang out of his eye "yeah yeah kid... now let's get this done, the quicker I' am out of here the better it will be" He said grumpily, still obviously angry at me for the omelette prank. As we entered the mainframe Roman went to a computer work station, while I stood guard by the door, after about 15 minutes I looked back and saw that Roman had accessed the mainframe easily enough and the documents he was transferring appeared on screen, I didn't pay much attention seeing as I had to keep a look out, that and the files looked boring Just a heap of things to do with Atlesian Knights and their control overrides or something of that description. It all just looked like technical mumbo-jumbo to me _'Guess the Atlesian Arms Corporation must be paying a bounty to retrieve this info' _I thought to myself reasoning that this entire mission was about making Roman money paying no heed to the rest of the documents, instead just staring down the hallway.

Roman had just informed me that he needed only about 5 minutes more to complete the data transfer, It was then I heard heavy armoured footsteps approaching and sure enough, about a dozen Atlesian Knights came around the corner, weapons raised at me."Well fuck this just went to hell in a hurry" I muttered as I set my weapon to its machine gun mode and began firing, taking down three of the robots before their return fire made me duck for cover. As I prepared to charge the robots a streak of light went past me as Roman had launched an explosive round from his cane into the midst of the robots, destroying them all. As Roman grabbed his data drive and ran past me he turned to me and in the most condescending tone possible smirked and said "Oh what you were saying about having more kills than me? you go a long way to go kid." He then kept running towards the security station, Upon reaching it we found the rest of the team and Eight Faunus, handcuffed and sitting against a wall. I looked incredulously at Kruger. "YOU TOOK PRISONERS?!" I yelled at him as I drew _Vindex Umbra _and set it to gun mode ready to slaughter the captives, as did Lachlan. Only for Kruger to shove me into a wall and Cpl Sanderson did the same to Lachlan. "Stand down Simon! we're not killing this lot, I got plans for them." Kruger said, shoving me into the wall and then backing away. Sanderson then let Lachlan go and stood by Kruger's side, Obviously they were close friends and have had each other's backs for years in the Atlesian Military. I turned my back and went to stand by Lachlan, whom I suddenly had a great respect for after seeing him back me up on wanting to kill the disgusting Faunus. I saw Kruger take out his radio "Kale, can you get in touch with your old buddies, I got some merchandise for them" I couldn't hear Kale's reply so I merely listened in curiosity at what the Captain was talking about. "Ok Organise the pickup, give me the details when you get on the Bullhead. Get your asses to the Landing zone, and don't forget our gear. Kruger Out." The Captain shut off his radio and forced the Faunus onto their feet "Ok you filthy mutts, on your feet, you're going for a little ride." Kruger said as he pushed the lead Faunus out towards the bunker exit. We reached the door we had entered from about 5 minutes later, greeted by several more bodies that had been there than when we had entered, no doubt courtesy of Kale and Shauno up on the ridge. We waited just inside the bunker out of the firing line until we heard the droning of Bullhead engines and sure enough the Bullhead dropped into view right in front of the bunker, The door gunner waved us out and we all piled into the Bullhead, with it being much more cramped due to the additional passengers. The bullhead lifted off and flew low over the ridge where we had spent the night and landed in a clearing below, waiting there were Shauno and Kale weighed down like pack mules under their rifles, gear and our packs. Danny and Luke jumped out and helped the snipers into the Bullhead and distributed our packs back out to us. Once more the Bullhead took off, this time flying fast and high, to get away from the facility as quick as possible and back to the camps in the hills.

But the Bullhead didn't fly towards the mountains, instead it took us further South away from the mountain ranges as ordered by Kruger after having a whispered conversation with Kale, I looked around anxiously, trying not to get airsick but the more i tried the more I failed and eventually had to reach for a barf bag. "Ugh Simon, really? can you not go more than 30 minutes on a Bullhead without vomiting?" Shauno complained as the smell of vomit wafted in the cabin. "It is probably karma for feeding Roman that omelette" Kale joked, laughing at both myself and at Roman causing me to flip the pair of snipers off. After about an hour's flight we landed in a small clearing and Kruger flanked by Kale and Shauno forced the Faunus prisoners out into the grassy meadow while the rest of us retreated into the tree line and crouched in the shadows covering our captain and snipers. After a good 30 minute wait the hum of engines was heard and three Bullheads swooped overhead and landed at the other end of the meadow. out of two of them came several armed men, I looked through the pair of binoculars I had borrowed from Kale and saw that the armed men all bore the snowflake logo of the Schnee Dust Company and then it dawned upon me what Kale and Shauno had organised, to sell the Faunus prisoners as labour to the SDC for work in their Dust quarries. A hair pricked at the back of my neck and a tiny voice in my head squeaked _'This isn't right, No one deserves slavery' _but I quashed that voice and my hatred for the Faunus took over and i smiled as I watched the exchange take place through the binoculars, The Faunus were herded towards the 3rd Bullhead that hadn't been loaded with soldiers and the SDC official who looked to be in charge handed Kruger a briefcase, shook Kale and Shauno's hands, then turned on his heel and walked back to his Bullhead and the three SDC aircraft took off. The meeting and exchange took all of 5 minutes. Once the SDC Bullheads were out of sight we exited the tree line and gathered around Kruger, all quite stunned at what we had seen. The first to speak was Roman "So how much did they give you? And where is my cut?" He asked holding his hand out expecting payment from his subordinate. Kruger sighed and opened the case "45,000 Lien, 5000 of which is yours Roman" Kruger said as Sanderson counted out 5000 Lien and handed them to Roman, who pocketed it gleefully. "We must start taking more prisoners if the SDC is going to pay us this much for them" Roman said as he walked towards the Bullhead we had arrived in and we followed. It had been a quiet trip home and It was dark by the time we got back to the base up in the mountains and the Other two Squads had already returned, Having held their objectives until A Black Fist Company group numbering 160 had relieved them to be picked up by Bullheads and brought back. I was very tired and retired to my bunk quite quickly, only for Kruger to knock on my door and chuck a sack into my room "your cut of the Lien we made today out of those prisoners, also Thank-you for that prank on Roman the entire team owes you big time for humiliating that condescending dick with omelette. That was just classic!" The captain said before moving on to the next room. I grabbed up the sack and tipped it out onto my bed, counting it up to 5000 Lien _'Wow that's a lot of Lien' _I thought to myself as I put it back in the bag and hid it, not trusting some dick to try to sneak in and take my hard earned money. I felt a lot more at ease now than i did when I first arrived here, having managed to score major points with everyone with the Omelette prank. But I still felt uneasy, I was eager to get out there and find my parents killer, or at the very least the Black clad, cat eared assassin from the Police station whose image filled my nightmares most nights for the last 2 years now. As i closed my eyes to get some much needed rest, my thoughts turned to that assassin, and my thoughts were a simple promise _'I will find you one day... and when I do, I'll make you watch as your family dies, then only when you beg for death will I give it to you'._

**A/N: **First off: I really felt like Humiliating Roman in this Chapter, I got the idea for the MRE from a YouTube video I saw while randomly surfing the net called "The Worst MRE Ever!: The Omelet"

Secondly A big shout out to xThat One Personx for allowing me to reference his story "Dog Days" (It is worth checking out) and for the words of encouragement on my work... Feedback from readers allows me to alter and improve my work or style. So don't be afraid to review or even PM feedback to me... it all helps, trust me!

Thirdly: I' am uber pumped for today's ep of RWBY... the suspense of the ending of last week is killing me haha :D enjoy your RWBYday everyone! -CC


	9. A Quest for Revenge Pt2

**A/N: **A bit of a long A/N today, so I apologise for that in advance and I also apologise for taking so long to update.

First off: A MASSIVE THANK-YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS READ MY STORY! _From Hunted to Hunter_ passed 1000 views yesterday!

Secondly I' am really enjoying the _World of Remnant _shorts during the off weeks for RWBY, it really helps Fanfic writers now that we know where on Remnant each kingdom is located.

Next up a big thank-you to those two awesome people who left reviews: Monochrome Spectrum I have shortened the paragraph lengths substantially, I hope this chapter isn't too painful to read :)  
HeroBladeRiyet: your unique form of encouragement is very welcome.

There will be one more chapter update sometime this week and then I' am going away on vacation this Friday, so there will be a few weeks without an update.

Chapter Nine: A Quest for Revenge Pt2: set 6 months after Chapter Eight

**Simon's PoV**

As I lay in the snow, sniper rifle to my shoulder. My breathing slowed and eventually stopped as my eyesight grew sharper and more focused as I lined the target up through the scope and as the crosshairs moved to where I wanted them to be I slowly pulled the trigger. The recoil from the heavy duty rifle slammed back into my shoulder, I raked the bolt back and ejected the shell casing. I heard a low whistle to my left "Not bad Simmo, not bad at all. 1000m and you are only about half an inch from the heart, but with the sheer size of the rounds we use, it wouldn't matter... that's one dead Torchwick" Kale chuckled from the spotters position next to me. I head Shauno chuckling in the background at the teams newest marksman-in-training as we all enjoyed a rare day off from Roman's almost incessant demands for more Faunus prisoners to sell to Kale and Shauno's mate in the SDC's Special Security Branch, in my head it seemed whatever project Roman originally had in mind when he put this team together had taken a back seat for making money... Typical greedy bastard.

"This long range shooting is great fun and a good stress reliever seeing as we use effigies of that selfish asshole Roman as targets, but personally in combat I will always choose my staff over this thing any day," I said as I stood up and let Kale take my place as the shooter.  
"And why would you prefer to have to get up close and risk injury or death? putting yourself in danger doesn't seem your style Simon, Sniping is an effective weapon against even huntsmen and huntresses," came Shauno's reply. I thought about this carefully, not wanting to cause a shit fight by insulting their skills as marksmen.  
"Because, while your sniping maybe effective against regular Faunus, if there is a group of Faunus with training in Aura use, you only get one volley of fire with the element of surprise and then those who are left will be immune to your fire or have ducked behind cover out of your firing line, whereas getting up close, I can exploit weaknesses, stun or incapacitate them and then take them out while they are weakened ," I replied smugly. Shauno stepped over to face me before giving his reply  
"Well what if we choose not to kill the first two victims, merely say blow their legs off with the 12.7mm rounds we use? imagine the mental affect it would have seeing their friends screaming for help, bleeding out. But they can't help them, 'cause if they do then they could become the next victims. A person's Aura can only stand up to so much damage before it weakens and can be overcome, as you well know from experience. Snipers are way more than just long range killers, we are psychological weapons of fear and heartbreak." The lanky marksman simply just winked at me and walked over to his rifle to begin a 1000m shooting contest with Kale.

I on the other hand grabbed up my gear and decided to go and see Danny and Luke: the squads resident pyromaniacs (ok we all were pyromaniacs, but these two took it to an entirely new level) were up to... It was then that a muffled explosion was heard _'Guess they managed to pry open the new locks on the explosives shed.' _I thought to myself as I ran over to where the pillar of smoke was rising. To see the two men laughing their heads off surrounded by several bottles and jars. I saw Luke grab another bottle and hurl it through the air in my direction calling out "Fire in the hole!" Before ducking behind a snow barrier they had constructed. my eyes widened as i realise I' am in their firing line "Oh holy fuck!" I yell as I scramble behind a fallen log and bring my Aura up around myself in case I get stuck in whatever explosion they have concocted.

About 10 seconds later another muffled boom is heard very close by and I hear several shards of something hitting the other side of the log. Once it had all settled, I jumped up and ran towards Luke, Smacking him in the jaw with a left-handed hook causing him to hit the ground. "Watch where you throw your homemade bombs, you damn near took me out you prick!" I yelled at him furiously as he stood up only to end up on the ground from another hook to the jaw this time knocked out. I went to kick him with my steel capped boot in anger but found myself being tackled to the ground by Danny who began laying punches into me in defence of his pyro buddy and I placed him into a chokehold as he continued to beat my kidneys.

I nearly had Danny starved of oxygen as his punches became weaker and his face went blue, it was then that we were pried apart by a very pissed off Captain Kruger. "Oi what are you two doing! Simon, Let go of Danny now!" He barked as I felt a steel toed boot from Kruger being launched into my ribs, both winding and forcing me to let go and grab at my bruised chest area gasping for air, Danny rolled away also gasping for breath. I saw Sanderson checking over Luke and eventually calling Lachlan and the bases Doctor over who had a folded stretcher with him. Eventually I managed to clamber to my feet and stare down the much taller and older Danny as he gained his breath again and stared down right back at me, ready to go another round. "Ok both of you, heel! Last thing we need is one more of us in hospital with Luke," Kruger said stepping between us with Sanderson.

"Ok now what happened here?" Kruger asked seriously, eyeing both Danny and myself. With that the both of us began to tell the tale of events from our perspectives, eventually Kruger held up his hand to stop us and turned to Danny, "Danny, didn't I tell you and Luke not to mess around with lobbing explosives, especially back towards the camp and especially your homemade ones. And Simon, for the love of dust... there is no need to knockout your team mates every time they piss you off, thought we went through this after that incident with the guys from Whiskey a couple months back" Kruger admonished us both angrily, looking to stamp out any seeds of conflict between members before it gets too violent. I shrugged "Whatever." And turned to walk back to my room in the barracks to let my temper cool down a bit.

It was mid-afternoon when a knock on the door roused me from my dozing. Opening the door to find a very groggy Luke being supported by Danny, instantly I was on guard. "Hey man, we're sorry about throwing that bomb your way. We honestly didn't see you... thought you were still up with Kale and Shauno" Danny said, his voice devoid of sincerity and emotion  
"Also I'd like to add, never thought someone so young and short could hit so damned hard. Almost feel sorry for the Faunus you fight... Almost," Luke chuckled also forcibly. It was obvious that Kruger had sent them to apologise, and it was obvious that I was expected to do the same. Sighing I look at them "Let's just call it a war game gotten out of hand and be done with it?" We all nodded and decided that we weren't going to gut each other for now, until the next time someone's temper got frayed. "By the way, Kruger said to get your arse over to the HQ building, seems Roman has another mission for us, so grab your gear" Luke added as he turned to head out of the barracks building. I grunted in annoyance "I swear if this is just another snatch and grab in some backwater, non-White Fang Faunus village for prisoners, I will slice Roman. It's about time we get back to really hurting the Fang." The other two merely ignored my grumblings as we made our way to the HQ building where the rest of Rum Squad and our assigned Bullhead crew were assembled.

"Right now people... I know most of you have been enjoying the relatively easy missions and big paydays I have been giving you these last few months, but it is time to move onto something more hurtful to the Fang," Roman said in a serious tone. _'Well what do you know... he does have moments when he isn't condescending' _I thought absentmindedly as Roman began briefing our mission to us. "Your target is this Faunus, and more importantly the contents of his safe and scroll." Roman said as a picture of a Faunus with a set of wolf ears, one of which had the tip sliced off. "His name is Dex, and he was in charge of the White Fang raid on the Atlesian Arms Corp facility we attacked 6 months ago. Before he came to Atlas he was based in Vale where he was in charge of the White Fang cell that operated between the City of Vale and the town of Exton." Roman added this part in while staring directly at me. My blood ran cold and I clenched my fists until my knuckles were white. Roman smirked "Yes kid, before you ask... you will have the chance to have a _friendly _chat with him once I have everything I need from him," he said in his normal condescending tone. Part of me wanted to be angry at Roman for once again calling me _Kid, _but I was far too focused on getting info on my parent's killers and the assassin from the police station from the scumbag who had been unlucky enough to find his way into my sights. My attention snapped back to Roman as he gave the final details. "Kale, Shauno, Simon and Lachlan: you will conduct recon on the compound from a ridge to the north for a night and day, before Simon and Lachlan infiltrate on the 2nd night to accomplish the mission. Now lets go people, time is money." With that we went and changed into woodland camouflage and grabbed the gear needed for this mission.

That afternoon the Squad was dropped off via Bullhead 10km away from the White Fang camp and split into its separate elements. The marksmen, Lachlan and myself headed North to a ridge, the rest of the squad went South to a creek bed. It was Sunset by the time we reached where Kale said the best vantage point was overlooking the camp, made up of mostly tents and about half a dozen wooden cabins and storage sheds. We settled into a routine of taking turns watching their guards patrol patterns and trying to get eyes on our target through the sniper scope. I had managed to get a few hours sleep before being awoken by Kale and Lachlan, seemed it was my turn to take watch with Shauno on the thermal scopes. Nothing really happened for the first hour, then as I was scanning I saw a door burst open and two Faunus come rolling out grappling and punching each other. I tapped Shauno and pointed it out to him and whispered "10 Lien on the one currently on the ground." Shauno lightly chuckled as he observed the fight through his scope. "You obviously don't like money," he whispered back. Watching for about five minutes, my guy eventually got the upper hand and was winning... until the camp guards ran in and beat both of the fighters up and hauled them away. "Lets just call that one a draw ok, seeing as no one really won?" Shauno whispered to me, not wanting to lose anymore of his Lien. I merely rolled my eyes and went back to scanning. The rest of the night was uneventful and just before sunrise Kale and Lachlan took back over and I curled into my sleeping bag and dozed off.

I was woken by the sound of trucks rolling into the camp, I grabbed the set of binoculars I had acquired on a previous raid and crawled up to the others who were all looking down at the commotion. "Guys, I got eyes on our target, he came out of the Building in the North-East corner of the compound," Kale said as he marked the target building on the complex map he had drawn the day before. I on the other hand was looking at the trucks _'Hmm must be supplies from a raid?' _I thought to myself seeing the logo of both Atlesian Arms and the SDC on the containers and boxes being unloaded and moved into a storage shed in the southern end of the compound. Scanning back over the convoy is when is saw it... That familiar black hair and those hateful golden eyes pierced my very soul, It was him... the one who had attacked the police station. My anger boiled over and all rational thought disappeared, I slid down to my sleeping bag, grabbed _Vindex Umbra _and prepared to charge down to that camp and get my revenge. However before I could clear the ridge, I was crash tackled by both Shauno and Lachlan, while Kale continued observing the camp. "What the fucks gotten into you kid?! You can't just run in there guns blazing, you'll get yourself killed and nothing more!" Lachlan growled at me as he pinned me to the ground. "Get off of me Lachlan... he's there and he needs to die NOW!" I growled back, trying to wiggle free. "And who exactly is _he? _wanna take a shot at him?" Kale asked as he looked down the sniper scope. I scowled at Kale and shook my head "no, I want to look him in the eye as I end him, make sure he knows he is paying for his past." Kale didn't respond, obviously not caring about my little outburst. "Ok Simon, If we let you go... will you promise not to try anything totally fucking stupid?" Lachlan asked, ready to knock me out if i did try anything. I simply nodded and they released me and returned to the ridge to look down into the compound as the convoy left, the assassin with it. I on the other hand sat on my sleeping bag brooding over an opportunity lost.

As night fell, Lachlan and I prepared to sneak into the camp while most of the Faunus were in large tent in the centre of the camp, that seemed to be a mess hall or the like. "So umm yeah, how are we meant to sneak into this place when Faunus have near perfect night vision?" I queried Kale. He simply raised his hands to silence me and held up a pair of fake cats ears and held them out to me, a massive grin on his face. I on the other hand was not so amused. "Really, Is this a joke? because if it isn't I will break the nose of whoever came up with this!" I growled shaking my fist in anger. I heard Shauno snigger as I growled and chucked the ears at the marksman, "Shut up Shauno, hey... why isn't Lachlan wearing a set?" I pleaded, hoping to see Lachlan have to put a set on. "I' am not wearing one because these jokers know I'd castrate them if they even suggested it" came the deadpanned reply from Lachlan as he stood and began making his way down the slope towards the camp. I grabbed up _Vindex Umbra _and followed Lachlan, ducking from tree to tree, bush to bush. This particular camp didn't have any walls or fences_ 'Must be a relatively new base... wonder where Roman found out about this from so quickly?' _I wondered as Lachlan and I stayed hidden among bushes, not even game to breathe while a guard patrol went past about 50 metres ahead of us. After they had rounded a corner Lachlan and I pushed up and slyly made our way towards the cabin we had seen our target come out of this morning. The camp had no lights in it due to the Faunus having such good night vision, so use of thermal imaging goggles was essential.

Getting to the front door of the cabin and finding it locked, I removed a lock pick gun from the tool belt around my waist and kneel up to the door went to work on picking the lock, about 15 seconds later I had the door unlocked and carefully slid the door open "You first Lachlan," I whispered to my teammate who entered the building, his silenced pistol raised in case of guards or our target. Inside the building was a hallway running the length of the front of the building with three doors along it. "I'll check them one by one, stay here Simon," Lachlan whispered and he moved along the hallway and I closed and locked the door behind us, leaving it unlocked would raise suspicion. "Psst Simon, I found the Safe... You got your work cut out for you by the looks of it" I heard over my radio. I chuckled lightly as I entered the office.  
"Pfft yeah right, what could possibly challenge m..." I stopped as I saw the blue glow of a Holographic lock. "Well shit," Was all I could manage as I pulled up the office seat in the room and made myself comfy.

As I got down to work I turned to Lachlan "Lachie do you mind watching the door so I' am not disturbed, These things were designed by geniuses... they're Assholes as well but geniuses nonetheless." Not bothering to listen for Lachlan's reply, or his cursing at me for calling him _'Lachie' _I reached out to the lock and started trying to decode it. After about 10 minutes I managed to crack it, "I swear if I ever meet whoever invented these things, I will break their Jaw" I grumbled grumpily As I swung the door open to retrieve whatever was Inside, Looking briefly at the first couple of documents labelled: _Project Paladin-X _and _SDC Dust train schedules _after that I didn't really pay attention to the names, just shoving them into the bag I had brought with me. Once I had finished with that, I moved to the desk, taking anything that looked important, Including a list of scroll frequencies and a framed photo of our target's family. _'Oh I have a lot of questions for you when I get my hands on you'._ I thought to myself as I left the office and made my way to the bedroom next door.

Upon entering the target's sleeping quarters I began sifting through his bedside table, finding his scroll and several handwritten letters and drawings from what I could only assume was his son from his family photo that now was in one of my pockets, pocketing the personal Items and placing the scroll into the bag with the safe contents I turned to Lachlan "Ok I have the scroll, all we need now is our target and we can bug out of here." It was at that moment that our radios crackled "Simon, It's Kale... Thermal Scope showing two Tangos heading towards your building, could be our target and a subordinate." I didn't bother replying, instead, grabbing the tranquilizer gun off of my back, Lachlan did the same not wanting to take chances if there was two Faunus coming into the building. Taking position at the end of the hallway side by side we waited. We heard the key on the front door and the lock clicking, We raised and readied our tranquilizer guns. My heart was pounding as the door cracked open and in came two Faunus, I snapped my aim to the one on the right and squeezed the trigger, the dart flying and hitting the deer like Faunus in the thigh while Lachlan hit our target. Dropping the guns we lunged forward and grabbed the two Faunus before they could call out or drop to the floor making noise. Upon grabbing the deer Faunus, I quickly peered out of the cabin door, seeing no one I closed it, so as not to raise suspicion.

Turning back to Lachlan and the two now unconscious Faunus that he was in the process of Gagging, Tying their hands with zip ties and putting bags over their heads. "So are we taking both of them or what?" I asked, not really wanting to be hauling both of the tranquilized Faunus with us. "Nope, Leave the deer here. We got everything we came for, time to go." Lachlan replied as he hauled our target up onto his shoulders and reached for his radio and called the other team. "Danny, Luke... time for your little distraction, we got the package and are about to leave. get Kruger to signal the bullhead for an extraction from the camp" I looked at Lachlan and rolled my eyes  
"Once, just once I'd like to disappear into the night without leaving a giant crater... like a real ninja," I grumbled as I prepared to open the door but waiting until Danny and Luke set off whatever bang they had planned. About 30 seconds later, a loud explosion was heard from the southern end of the compound as what i could only assume was a dust storage shed went up in flames. Not hesitating I slammed the door open and bolted out in a crouch run towards the a an open area towards the centre of the camp, _Vindex Umbra _out in gun mode ready to take down any Faunus in my way, But none showed themselves as they all seemed to be at the storage shed trying to put out the flames.

Arriving at the open area to find the other team already there and Lachlan very close behind me, moving very quickly for a large man carrying a Faunus on his back. "Kruger, this is Kale and Shauno, just hit the bottom of the hill, won't be more than a minute." Came Kale's deep booming voice through the radio. At that same moment, the whirring of Bullhead engines could be heard coming closer. It was as the engines became audible that things got hectic, the Faunus seemed to catch onto our presence as we suddenly saw the Faunus begin converging onto our position. However a lot of them were unarmed, either having left their weapons in their tents in their rush to put out the flames or they had been destroyed in the blast that Danny and Luke had created. We raised our weapons and fired a few warning shots wounding several Faunus, Instantly dozens of hands went up, to signify surrender. We kept our weapons raised until the Bullhead landed behind us then one by one we entered the airship, first was Lachlan and our target, last was the two marksmen who entered from the other side which faced the ridge. Once Shauno scrambled aboard, weighed down by his sniper rifle and Lachlan's pack. The Bullhead lifted off headed straight for the base with our still unconscious cargo.

Once we had returned to base: Roman, Kruger and Lachlan took our prisoner to the tool workshop, where there was a soundproofed room. While the rest of us returned to the barracks for a hot meal. As we all sat down to eat I turned to Sanderson who always seemed to know what was going in "Hey Sanderson, What exactly are they doing over there?" The question took him by surprise by the look on his face. "Umm yeah...the Idea is to break him before we even spoke to him. He was to be left in there for a day bound, gagged, blinded, denied food and kept awake with loud music. Tomorrow we begin our questioning of him when his lips are hopefully a bit looser." As I process this my face goes slightly pale "Wow, really sucks to be that guy... going to suck even more when I get at him." The others around the table look at me curiously and Kale finally asks what he, Shauno and Kale had all been thinking. "Why Did Roman even say you can talk to him? Does this have anything to do with your mental snap on the ridge today?" I simply nodded, not wanting to go into detail as to why. As I'am sure that my reason's are obvious enough seeing as the Faunus scumbag we had captured had been in Vale at the time my parents had died. I ate in silence and then retired to my room, I needed some sleep after the stress and exertion of the last couple days and to prepare myself for the day to come.

The Next Evening: Simon's PoV

I spent most of the morning in my room writing down what questions I was going to ask Dex when I finally got my chance to question him and Most of the afternoon Doing sparring with Luke and Danny, Gave us all a chance to Vent our anger after the bomb incident before the last raid and to get my mind off of the questioning to come, lest I drive myself insane. Then finally just after Sunset as the Squad sat down to eat, Lachlan strode in "Well Roman finally seems satisfied with the answers he gotten from Dex. He said that he is ready for you Simon, whenever you choose to go." He said simply and without emotion as he walked up the hallway towards his room. I stood up and walked wordlessly out of the door, my meal totally forgotten as was everything except for Dex and my questions for him.

I reached the door, and it was then that I hesitated, I had never done anything calculated or malicious like an interrogation before and I found it very daunting. But it wasn't time for doubts, I needed answers, my thirst for revenge demanded it. So I placed on my balaclava and opened the door to be greeted with the sight of a bound and bloodied Dex with a bag over his head. Dex raised his head, acknowledging my presence with a growl "I already told you assholes everything I know about the White Fang's plans for SDC and Atlesian Arms!" He said angrily and loudly. I simply chuckled darkly and replied menacingly "You may have satisfied my employer on your terrorist plots, but I honestly don't give a damn about SDC, Atlesian Arms or your group's plans for them, I have a much more personal reason for wanting to talk to you." I saw his posture straighten and tense up, recognising that I was someone he had not talked to before during his time here. "Oh really? And what exactly do you want to know?" He replied, trying to gather his strength to resist my questioning.  
"I only want to know three things. Tell me what they are and this will be over quickly and painlessly, try to fuck with me... and your previous interrogation will seem like a picnic by the time I'am done with you. Those three things are: 1/What was your role in the Alexander murders in Exton, Vale two and a half years ago?  
2/ Who was the Catlike Faunus with the black hair who was at your camp yesterday and what was his role in a White Fang attack on a police station in Vale the night after the Alexander murders?  
3/ Where can I find him at this very moment?  
All you have to do is Answer honestly and this will all be over" I asked calmly and without malice this time. As I asked those questions, I noticed Dex's breathing quicken and his posture became even more stiff. "I don't know anything about any murders in Exton, and I only know that Faunus by his code-name _Rapier Wasp._" Dex replied, suddenly invigorated to resist for reasons I couldn't fathom.

I sighed "So I guess it is the hard way then." I said walking over to one of the tool benches and picked up a cordless drill. Squeezing the trigger on it a couple times to ensure that Dex got the message about what was coming his way. "You have one more chance to answer my questions before this gets really ugly and painful" I asked threateningly, setting the drill off once more to emphasise my point. "I' am serious, I don't know anything, even if I did I wouldn't tell you. You fucking sociopath!" Dex said, rather unconvincingly. _'Must be real close friends with this Rapier Wasp fellow, If he is willing to spill his guts over White Fang plans yet suddenly be resistant to this.' _I thought as I walked over and placed the drill over Dex's left hand which was bound to the arm of the chair. "You calling me a sociopath? well isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black." I said sarcastically as I triggered the drill and put it through Dex's hand, which was accompanied by much screaming from the Faunus. Removing the drill from Dex's hand I spoke to him once more "Now has that triggered your memory at all?" I asked him condescendingly, hoping he still resists as my hunger for revenge was finally being fed against someone who had a direct role in my parents death. But unfortunately he had broken, whatever Lachlan, Kruger and Roman had done to him had sapped most of his energy and his resistance to my questioning was merely tokenism.

The Faunus began to sob "Ok, Ok... I'll talk, Just no more drills." I nodded and put the drill back onto the bench and pulled out my notepad "Ok, now spill." I asked him, without malice or anger _'Finally I' am getting somewhere' _I thought to myself. "Ok, As you probably know... I was In vale at the time when the White Fang changed leaders, and took a new... more violent path. Well your parents clinic represented Faunus dependence on humans, so it needed to be removed. While I ordered one of the White Fang cells to carry out the attack, I was not personally present in Exton that night. And before you decide to chase down those who were, don't bother... they all got caught and dealt with by some black ops team named _The Head hunters_" Dex said in a deflated tone. I jotted down his responses "Well that takes care of one of my questions, Just two more to go" I say deadpanned and I waited for the Faunus to continue. "As for your 2nd question, _Rapier Wasp _is one of the White Fang's top killers, he had been sent to vale to kill several of the kingdom's ministers, his attack on that police station was just a matter of serendipity that he happened across it just as you were walking inside. I don't know much about him except that his real name is Schwarzer, he was always independent of my command in Vale as he is here in Atlas So I don't know where to find him. Now that I have answered your questions... I have one for you. Why are you so interested in irrelevant events of the past.?" Dex asked, obviously curious for why his past is being probed. I grew very angry at calling my parents murder _irrelevant _and I ripped the bag off of his head so that he could see me as I removed the balaclava. "I' am interested in these very relevant events of past because that night, you and your Faunus bastards left me orphaned and homeless. I' am Simon Alexander!" I yelled as I rocketed a punch into Dex's jaw.

Dex Reeled from the punch but was left in more shock that the orphan boy that everyone believed dead had suddenly shown back up... with a thirst for revenge. Dex chuckled lightly, obviously realising he wasn't getting out of this alive "So the 12 year old sheltered, pampered boy has come back as a 14 year old vindictive, sociopath with a blood lust? How quaint. ugh, guess if Schwarzer had done his job right, I wouldn't be in this mess and he wouldn't have to deal with you and your little band of fuck ups." Dex spat in contempt of me and my team, which resulted in another punch being landed on his face "Well Dex, before I find and kill Schwarzer, you're going to help me send a message to Schwarzer, we're going to let him know that I' am coming for him, and I will get him no matter what he does." I said, smirking most evilly. Before Dex could answer, I placed the bag back over his head and left the room. _'Finally, a Name to put to the face, maybe some of Roman's friends could help me find him.' _

Two Days Later: Simon's PoV

After several more conversations with Dex, He had given up the location of a White Fang encampment that Schwarzer was known to frequent often. So here I was on a Bullhead with no one but the pilots and a Bound and gagged Dex kneeling beside me. As we approached the encampment, The pilots hovered about 500m up and opened the side door, using all my concentration not to get airsick and visibly remain impassive I took a ziplock bag with an envelope inside containing a hand written letter addressed to Schwarzer out of my pocket with one hand, and raised a nail gun I had taken from the workshop in my other. "I told you Dex, you're going to help me send a message to Schwarzer. What I didn't mention is that it also doubles over as your execution for the murder of my parents." I yelled into his ear as I pressed the ziplock bag to the back of his skull and pressed the nail gun to the bag and squeezing the trigger. With the Letter firmly secured to the now dead Dex I pushed his corpse out of the open side of the Bullhead towards the White Fang below. Turning to the pilot "Ok get us out of here, Time to head back to base... I think I've started enough of a shit storm for one day."

That Night: White Fang Compound: Third Person PoV

Schwarzer had arrived at the camp that night for what was supposed to be transit away from the battlefields that were the Atlesian wilderness and back to his family, but instead It took a dark turn when he was presented a ziplock bag that had been nailed to an old friend and comrades head. In it was a handwritten letter that left him chilled to the bone in a way that he no longer thought possible:

_To Schwarzer A.K.A Rapier Wasp_

_I now know who you are and I know what you have done and now you will pay with your life.  
The hunt has begun, I was once your prey But now The Hunted has become the Hunter. _

_Simon Alexander._

Please read and Review people... I' am always open to comment, advice and constructive criticisms -CC Signing off.


	10. -INTERMISSION- In Memoriam

**A/N: **Hello my awesome readers it's CC here. This will be my last update for a couple weeks while I' am away on Vacation from my university studies. In response to the extra awesome people that left Reviews, a plate of cookies I stole from Ruby await you :P

_**Awesome**__: _I'am glad you like the idea of The Black Fist. It only made sense to me that if Faunus were being violent, then humanity would be violent back seeing as the governments don't seem to be doing much to stop the White Fang in the show.

_**Monochrome Spectrum: **_Yes Simon will eventually be attending Beacon. But what he will do once he is there... That is currently being decided in my head and there are several different paths he can go down

_**xThatOnePersonx:**_ Yes well that is the point... he is an impressionable 12 year old that has spent 2 years being trained and indoctrinated by other Racist psychopaths, it is kind of expected that he would become one as well.

I have decided to take a break from Simon for this Chapter, as I need some time to plan and write what comes next for Simon and the Black Fist and this short drabble has been gnawing at my head for several days... So here is Chapter Ten of _From Hunted to Hunter._

Chapter Ten: In Memoriam  
Velvet Scarlatina's PoV (set exactly 3 years after chapter 1)

Even though I was on holiday away from combat school for the first time in 6 month, I still was up late at night completing homework. Not that designing the weapon that I would forge upon my return to combat school in a month homework, as I put the final touches on this part of the design I put down my pencil and looked at the clock _11:50pm._ With that I sighed and stood up from my desk, putting on a jacket and picked up the bouquet of flowers from my bedside table. Walking over to my window I climbed out, taking great care not to make any noise that would alert my parents to my sneaking out, which was easy given the training I had received. Heading over to the fence in our backyard that separated our yard from what once was the Alexander's home, but now stood as a memorial to the first victims of the new aggressive aberration of _The White Fang. _I sighed and vaulted over the fence being confronted with the sight of the polished white marble obelisk and three marbled headstones, each inscribed the names of the slain family members. I sat by the one closest to the fence I had just vaulted over and placed my hand on one of the photos that had been placed on the headstone, A photo of a small smiling human boy giving a piggy back to a Faunus girl with bunny ears. My hand went up to my head and lightly stroked my ears _'Oh Simon, how we all miss you and your mischievous antics'_ I thought to myself as I sat there in front of the memorial to my closest friend trying to think of what to say and how to feel. A single tear dropped down my face as I began to speak to the headstone "Hey Simon, It's Velvet. I know I haven't visited you in a while and I' am sorry for that, but Combat School has been very busy with us finally being able to design and forge our weapons. You would have loved what I designed, I promise to bring it for you to see once I make it." I say to the headstone rather enthusiastically as I went into the details of what I had drawn and designed.

After about 5 minutes of going through the specifics of my weapon and what my classes were like, I simply stopped and sighed sadly. "Even though the classes are great, so many of the other students and even some teachers there are so discriminatory, every day the same name calling, pushing and shoving, But I can never bring myself to be violent back to them or even hateful or angry... for I have seen exactly what comes from meeting violence with more violence." I said absentmindedly, remembering my promise never to use violence except when someone's life was at stake due to my not wanting to perpetuate the cycle of violence that _The White Fang_ had begun. "What's worse is that those who don't take part, do nothing to stop or condemn the bullying. Of all the humans I have met, you and your parents were the only ones who absolutely were not predisposed towards hating Faunus, guess what I' am trying to say is... damn I miss you and the way you always were nothing but friendly to absolutely everyone you met." I sighed, realising that I was just talking to a stone tablet, not my friend. A friend who was taken away from me because apparently his mere existence was a crime against Faunus, when in fact his existence was proof that we could live together and that all the hatred and violence that consumed our kingdom for so long and only recently ended need not have happened. By this time the tears were flowing freely from my eyes and my ears drooped depressingly. "If you could have seen what happened in the days following your death Simon, you would be as disgusted as I' am, people killing each other all over all in the name of _'Justice for Simon!' _You were never the violent type and I' am sure you would have detested any violence committed in your name. I remember how upset you'd get anytime you thought you'd hurt me or one of the other kids." I chuckle forlornly to myself at the time that Simon accidentally dropped me when giving me a piggy back and then fretting for hours to ensure I was ok. "That's kind of why I came tonight rather than tomorrow when the memorial service is meant to be held, too many activists, protestors and officials trying to win votes and not really caring about who you and your parents actually were, that and I just wanted to chat with you for a while by myself, without anyone judging me for simply missing you so much." I Continued to talk to the marble headstone for I don't know how long but eventually I ran out of things to say and I realised that it was time to say good bye... for now.

"It's getting pretty late now and I really should be resting, lest I lose my temper at some jerk tomorrow at the memorial from lack of sleep. Just so you know, More than anything In the world, I just wish I could see you again, Have my friend back again and have those endless pointless conversations about nothing that we both loved. Goodbye Simon, you rest easy." I reached into my pocket and took out a card and placed it with the flowers before standing and turning to walk back to my house, but not before sparing one last glance at the headstone "Happy Birthday Simon."


	11. A Quest for Revenge Pt3

**A/N: HI ALL I' AM BACK FROM VACATION!** Who else instantly fell in love with Zwei in episode 8? I went into cuteness overload at the mail tube dog :P And Weiss' reaction was just priceless... Someone tell Jaune that if he ever wants to be with Weiss to buy her a dog... on second thought DO NOT TELL HIM THAT! let him and Pyrrha be haha. I hope you all enjoyed a change of perspective in my last chapter, but now it is back to Simon, The Fang and The Fist. -CC

Chapter 11: A Quest for Revenge Pt3 (Set directly after Chapter 9)  
Simon Alexander's PoV

"You did WHAT?! I had planned to sell him to Kale and Shauno's friend in the SSB, NOT for you to kidnap him and put a nail through his head in order expose the fact that you were alive! Now you have simply placed a giant target on your back as _The White Fang _try to fix the mistake they made in letting you live and you have also put a target on the back of those around you... Especially me!" Torchwick fumed at me as I stood in his office upon my arrival back at the mountain base after having disobeyed his orders and began my own personal war.  
"Well Roman, I want Schwarzer to know I' am the one who did this, I want him to know I' am alive and that I' am coming for him. This just happened to be the easiest way to rattle him." I retorted, not caring for the 500,000 Lien that the SSB was apparently willing to pay for Dex due to the information he held. Roman, despite being angry didn't snap and become violent like Kruger or any other person in this camp would have. Instead he simply paced and thought about how to turn this to his advantage, a sinister sparkle came to his eye and he tapped his pimp cane on the ground "Well seeing as you have created quite a stir among the higher ups in The Fang with your sudden reappearance, they may mobilise to find you, this will mean more commanders and assassins in the field instead of in their currently unknown stronghold location. I have some calls to make, you are dismissed Kid," he said in a busy tone as he shooed me away before he activated his scroll.

Walking away from Roman's personal building and back to our barracks I was met by the members of Whiskey Squad who looked to be returning from a mission, a scowl covered all of our faces as we all began sizing each other up. "Well well well, what do we have here, judging from what me and the boys just overheard. Looks like someone's been a bad boy? Kidnapping prisoners? Disobeying orders and costing our operation a lot of money?" Captain Shevchenko growled as his team surrounded me, my dominant left hand went to my back and grabbed hold of my weapon.  
"What do you reckon Captain, should we teach him a lesson in listening to his betters?" sounded off another member: Sergeant Ryan Savage, whom I had beaten up a couple weeks ago in an altercation over some goods I had procured from their barracks for my squad. Captain Shevchenko smirked menacingly and nodded. But before anyone could move a shot fired off, we all turned to see Kruger and the rest of the squad standing with their weapons trained on Whiskey Squad.  
"Shevchenko, how about you and your group of money hungry, miserable excuses for soldiers go back to kissing Roman's ass and leave the actual fighting to those with a slight bit of competence, because really Simon could probably kick your entire teams arses single-handedly and he is a 14 year old kid who wasn't the best fighter in his training squad," Kruger said in a smart-arsed tone. Captain Shevchenko growled and eventually called off his team, as they slunk away to their barracks the door to Roman's hut opened and Roman popped out "Captain Kruger my office NOW! Shevchenko, I must speak with you and Captain Walker from Bourbon Squad later, so go get him and wait outside like good obedient muscle." He said sounding stressed as he returned to his office, Kruger signalled for us all to wait in the barracks while he dealt with whatever Roman had to talk to him for.

Upon returning to the barracks, the squad sat down to discuss the events of the last couple of days. Sanderson spoke up first seeing as Kruger had gone off to discuss something with Roman. "Ok Kid, What in the hell did you do to cause such a bullshit scene? Apart from convincing a pilot to help you steal a Bullhead and kidnap the prisoner." With that the entire squad looked at me, curiosity in their eyes and a spark of mischief in Shauno and Kale's. So I spent the next few minutes recounting what had transpired that morning and in my conversations with Dex over the last few days. Once I had finished recounting my tale I assessed my squad mates facial expressions: Kale and Shauno were nearly in hysterics at my _'sticking it to Roman'_, Danny and Luke looked on approvingly at my disposing of the Faunus, Lachlan just looked impassive as ever and Sanderson was face palming. "Really Simon? You thought hovering a Bullhead directly above a _White Fang _hideout was a good idea? you are lucky you didn't get blown out of the Sky you idiot. Man I kinda feel sorry for the Captain right now, having to clean up your mess and smooth things over with Roman." Sanderson said sighing with disappointment.  
"Oh come on David, don't tell me you wouldn't like the opportunity like this to send a giant _FUCK YOU _to both Roman and the _Fang?" _Shauno said, still laughing at the entire situation along with Kale. Sanderson shot them a dirty look over using his first name and they instantly shut up. turning back to me Sanderson still looked pissed but before he could speak, Kruger entered the room his face impassive.

Kruger leaned against the door frame and addressed us "Ok change of plans people, seems Roman has decided to try and make Simon's personal vendetta work for him and has put a plan to High Command for approval... The _White Fang _is going to not take Simon's reappearance lightly, and are likely to launch a big effort to finish him off as a matter of pride as well as try to push _The Black Fist _back in order to re-establish a foothold near the coast in the Atlesian Lowlands rather than up in the Snowy alps, Highlands and polar regions in the far north." Kruger stopped to grab a drink before continuing, but Kale spoke up first "Why does this feel like we are about to get used as bait somehow?" Kruger merely chuckled  
"Yes Kale, Simon and by extension the rest of us are bait. Which is why I have ordered meat hooks to shove up Shauno's and yours arses and wire to hang you from a tree with, see if we can't catch some Faunus that way." Kruger began laughing hysterically as the rest of us merely groaned at his attempt at humour. "Ty, never... I mean NEVER make a joke again you cynical old bastard" Shauno said as he held his hands over his ears in mock pain.

Kruger simply grunted and continued his briefing "Now as I was saying before someone decided to be a jerk-off. Yes we are going to be bait, performing assassinations or kidnappings of high-ranking White Fang officers and ensuring that Schwarzer has a trail of clues to follow in order to work out our next strike and be there, then we will neutralise him seeing as there is a 750,000 Lien reward on his head which is the only reason that Roman isn't nearly as pissed as he otherwise might have been over Simon's little stunt. Alright any questions?" Kruger asked finishing his briefing. I looked over each of my teammates  
"Just so we're clear... I' am the one who delivers the killing blow to Schwarzer, try to take that closure from me and I'll kill you, won't even try to deny I won't" I said threateningly and dead seriously. After an awkward moment of silence the rest of the team nodded but I could see in their eyes a sense of doubt in my abilities to overcome Schwarzer. "Ok with that settled, what's the first target?" Sanderson asked taking his customary spot at his captain's side. Kruger held threw a picture down onto the table and it contained a photo of a Bear-like Faunus "He is a Regional Commander in the Fang, and according to Roman's sources he will be making an inspection of a Faunus encampment in the Alps in two days time. He will be staying there only one night, so it is imperative we get this right. Simon, you will infiltrate the camp solo with Kale and Shauno providing sniper overwatch: assassinate the Commander while the rest of us defend the Bullhead Landing area and keep it clear of any grim and Faunus. leave a calling card so that the _Fang _knows it was you who did this and get out without anyone the wiser until they find his corpse the next morning." With that Kruger stood up and clapped his hands "Ok people snap to, we got a Bear to hunt."

**Two Days Later:**

Night had long since fallen after two days of recon as I prepared to make my way into the camp situated on the summit of a hill, unlike the one where we had caught Dex this one had a thick wall topped with razor tape as well as guard towers. "Ok so explain to me again how I' am meant to get into this mini-fortress?" I radioed to Kale and Shauno who were situated on another hill about 900m away. "Well with this unexpected snowstorm, the guards will either keep to their barracks or their guard towers which don't have a field of view of the whole wall, so there will be blind spots that you can exploit, but at the same time we cannot provide any support whatsoever Simon, even with thermals due to the extreme cold. So be careful and good luck. Kale out." With that the radio went dead and for the first time in over two years, I was truly alone. I forced any feelings of loneliness and fear to the back of my head as I crouch ran through the snow, my numb fingers gripping the grappling hook that I'll use to climb the wall. I eventually make it to the wall and dive against it, my snow camo masking me in the snowstorm. Throwing the grappling hook over the wall I tugged it and It caught on the razor tape _'ugh this is going to hurt like a bitch if I get caught on that' _I thought to myself as I climbed the 5m wall, upon reaching the top I grabbed hold of the wire cutters that was slung across my chest and cut the two strands of razor tape that surmounted the wall. I jumped down off the wall and landed in a soft pile of snow, I had the urge to act my age and make a snow angel _'jeez Simon, always got to act a kid at the most inappropriate moments aye?' _I rebuked myself mentally and buried my grapping hook in the snow next to the cuts I had made in the razor tape.

Marking the wall with phosphorescent paint so I could find my gear again later, I began making my way towards the centre of the camp towards the command hut. _'Kale was right, the guards really have decided to stick indoors tonight. Can't blame them one bit, my nose feels like it's going to freeze off' _my mind mumbled as I came into sight of the stone command hut... right in the middle of an open drill square. I dived into the snow near another stone building and observed the building that was barely visible a mere 30m away. "Oh you have got to be kidding me, I got to cross that open area? What fucking bullshit" I fumed as I surveyed for sentries, finding one doing a pattern around the outside of the drill square who was brandishing a rifle. It was walking away from me and quickly disappeared into the snowy blizzard. Once I was sure it no longer had a visual on the Command Hut I began a very slow commando crawl across the open area, moving slowly enough that the movement of my white-gray camo was written off as the wind blowing the snow around. I covered the 30m in about 10 minutes. I laid in the snow, perfectly still as the sentry came back into view doing another round of his patrol. Even as the cold penetrated my snow suit and I fought the urge to shiver or to yelp in pain as several patches of exposed skin began to suffer cold burn. My eyes stayed fixated on the sentry as it came ever closer to where I lay in the snow, realising that I would probably have to take down the sentry due to how close its patrol pattern came to my location.

My mind races through the possible outcomes, and ever so slowly I begin to feel fear and isolation as well as exposure _'Oh my, I fucked up... he will see me and raise the alarm, after all I did to survive, I die due to one fuck up' _My mind screamed at me as I began to feel the helpless feeling I had felt in the days after my parents death but before I joined the Fist. I see that the sentry was closing in on me. I will my mind into action and slowly yet shakily I drew a silenced pistol that Shauno had lent me and slowly took aim at the sentry and raised the pistol and aimed at the sentries heart. It took all of my effort to keep my freezing, and fear filled hands from shaking too much for me to aim. Once the sentry was about 10m from my position I held my breath fired three rounds all of which hit within half an inch of where I estimated the Faunus' heart was. The sentry dropped to the ground, an ever enlarging pool of slick red blood surrounding their fallen form. The feeling of anxiety and fear I had felt momentarily ago vanished upon seeing the dead sentry

Knowing my time was now very limited I bolted up to the door of the command hut, predictably it was locked. I quickly grabbed out my lock pick gun and went to work on the door. Within seconds the lock popped and I snuck in, I saw the glow of a fireplace at the end of the hall as well as two sets of voices. Raising the pistol I slunk over towards the fire lit area which reeked of alcohol and cigars, keeping to the shadows in a piss poor attempt to conceal my presence from the sight gifted Faunus. I peeked around and saw my target talking to none other than Schwarzer. However Schwarzer was merely a hologram over a communications device, I stepped silently out into the light my pistol raised and fired a single silenced round into the back of my target's skull. As the target dropped and I stared into those emotionless golden eyes of my one true target "Hello Schwarzer, It truly is a shame that it couldn't be you sprawled out on the floor instead of this thing" I said kicking the corpse at my feet and removing my hood, thermal goggles and balaclava so Schwarzer could see my face. "Why Hello Simon I must say you have grown a bit in both appearance and tolerance to death from that scared little kid who screamed and ran at the sight of seeing those hapless police officers die," came the cold, calculating reply from the Faunus. "You know, I will find you eventually, or you can try to find me... either way I will kill you for what happened that night." I said with as much venom as I could muster. The assassin merely chuckled "Such Violence and hate at such a young age, so surprising for someone who was raised by such a peaceful family and who grew up loving Faunus. Don't you think your mother would have much rather you died a sweet innocent child than to survive and transform into this? Go on, turn that gun on yourself and make mamma Alexander happy again that her fuck up child made one right choice." Schwarzer cackled. At this I became angry beyond rationality and shot the communications array.

Knowing my window of escape was growing exponentially smaller sliced off my target's hand for DNA confirmation on the bounty on his head and I bolted for the door and out into the blizzard, remembering to close the command hut's door behind me. I replaced my thermal goggles and began running back towards my buried gear at the wall. Upon reaching the wall I removed a UV torch from my tool belt and used it to uncover the paint I had put on the wall, once I found the mark I retrieved my wire cutters and grappling hook and used it to once again scale the wall and climb back out of the hole I made on entry to the compound. As soon as I cleared the wall I clicked off my stopwatch _'Total time in the compound Is 22 minutes... not bad at all' _I thought to myself. With that I sprinted off into the blizzard and the night To make my way back up the neighbouring hill which had Shauno and Kale in their hide. During the trudge back my mind was racing about my conversation with Schwarzer. Eventually I just collapsed in the snow and resisted the urge to bash my head just to stop his voice ringing in my head and the tears streaming down my face. _'Ugh he is good at psychological warfare... knew exactly what buttons to push to break my concentration and calmness, Killing him just keeps getting more and more a satisfying goal.' _I thought to myself as I began the assent up to Shauno and Kale's sniper hide.

It took nearly three hours and two more breakdowns to make the uphill trek in the snowstorm , I was barely able to stand or walk by the time I reached their hide. "Jeez Simon, you look like a pile of frozen shit" Shauno said as he turned from the spotter's scope to look at my frozen form. I made no acknowledgement of the marksmen, instead I slumped against my pack and attempted to sleep despite the snowstorm, my once again fracturing mind and the constant chattering of Shauno and Kale. Just as I was about to succumb to the darkness alarms began sounding off from the direction of the base "Umm Simon, I think your handiwork has been discovered early? something you wish to explain?" Kale said as he began disassembling his sniper rifle in preparation for a speedy getaway. I looked up to Kale "Problems were encountered, persisted and were overcome. Though to be honest I' am surprised it took them this long to raise the alarm" I replied simply as I continued to lay there resting while the two snipers packed away their gear and dismantled the inside of the hide, putting off taking down their insulated thermal camo net that covered the hide. I felt a boot lightly kick my hip "Off your arse mate, we are leaving now to make our way to the Bullhead's landing zone while we have a substantial lead on any Fang search parties they send out." Kale said as he hoisted his pack onto his back. I groaned and stood up, shouldering my pack "Ok ok, lets get going... the sooner we leave the sooner we can get back to base and a warm bed." I growled sourly as we set off into the snowy oblivion that was the Atlesian Highlands and into the next step in what I hoped to be a quick lure and eliminate campaign.

**6 Months and several dozen missions later: (I.e. Approx. the same time as Chapter 10)**

"What the fuck do you mean he was never there? I knew he was there!" I screamed at Sanderson and I raised a fist to hit him, but think better of it. "I put weeks and over a dozen missions into organising that trap and that motherfucker doesn't even show? how... how is he ALWAYS one step ahead of me!" I yelled at no one in particular as Kale walked up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Take it easy mate, we'll get him next time... of that I' am sure of" Shauno nodded in agreement in one of their rare serious moments. But I didn't listen, "No It had to be today... for today marked three years since all this bullshit started with my parents death" I replied as I punched the nearest wall gutted emotionally. Most of the team simply grunted and walked away... having had enough of my all consuming obsession with killing Schwarzer. "Simon, Calm down man. you need to tone down your obsession with this before it gets you... or worse yet me killed" Danny said irately as he left the barracks. I slumped against the wall and repeatedly banged my head against it eventually feeling the warm trickle of blood running through my hair. Kale and Shauno remained having pulled up seats from the table Kale grunted to get my attention "As much as I hate agreeing with Danny, he is right... trying to force Schwarzer to play by your rules won't work, in fact I think you're playing right into his hands by burning yourself out like this and by the time you do find him, you'll be too exhausted to win against him." I simply chuckled forlornly "you're probably right Kale, but I simply can't let this go, I was so close this time, he knew where I was going to be and when! But instead some 2nd rate grunts turn up to try and stop me from killing that officer, not Schwarzer." I smacked my head against the wall once more and slunk off to my room to reflect on my failed trap.

Upon reaching my room my scroll went off _'Hmm probably Gregory seeing how the trap went' _I thought to myself as I walked over to my desk and picked it up to find it was an actually another old friend, Ben's frequency. hesitantly I answered the call only to see a hologram of Schwarzer who had Ben tied up behind him as well as several dead black fist troopers. "Why hello there Simon, I' am sorry I couldn't make it to your little birthday bash that you had planned for me, I hope the _White Fang _soldiers I sent provided enough entertainment... It isn't every day you become a 15 year old psychopath with a death wish, which is why I organised this very special present for you." Schwarzer said pointing his fork tipped katana towards my former teammate. I did my best to remain impassive, not to let him into my head. "What do you want Schwarzer? Because I aint paying any ransom... not like the Fist actually pay us." I replied, telling a half lie about the last part. At this Schwarzer laughed "Oh Simon, no no I want nothing from you... in fact I have a gift for you to go with all the others that I and the Fang have given you over the last three years. That gift being the same as all the others: another death of a close friend or loved one, and don't worry... I'll find Gregory, Levi and the others eventually" came the reply as Schwarzer raised his Katana and beheaded Ben with one swift strike a moment later the transmission cut. The colour faded from my face and my anger boiled as I opened up my scrolls contact list and opened up a group call with Gregory, Levi, Sarah and Alex who were my fellow survivors from the training squad.

Gregory and Alex answered almost instantly, a few seconds later Levi and Sarah came up on screen, both from Sarah's scroll _'guess he finally asked her out aye' _ I thought in a attempt to lighten my mood as they all asked why I was ringing them, seeing as I wasn't the type to really put much effort into keeping track of them. "Guys, you're all in serious danger. The assassin that me and my team have been hunting for the last few months has turned his attention to finding and killing each of you in order to try and wage psychological warfare upon me. I' am giving you this warning now so you can be vigilant and hopefully avoid the same fate that has just befallen Ben" I replied, still trying to remain impassive. "What fate? Simon... has your personal bullshit gotten another one of us killed?!" Alex roared through the connection, which was reasonable considering how close he had been with Ben. "I had nothing to do with it... this asshole is just trying to get into my head seeing as neither of us are actually able to trap the other and finish them off." I responded now getting agitated that I was being blamed for this BS. "Both of you shut up" Gregory's voice cut in. "Ok, Simon If this guy has killed one of us, he has declared war on all of us, not just you. And I think I may have a perfect way to get back at him, I can't explain now over scrolls. But I' am sure within the next couple days you'll be briefed on what the company I have been working with has found and how it will be exploited. Take care all, I' am sure we will see each other again soon." With that vague answer and promise Gregory disconnected as did Alex after flipping me off one last time. I looked at Levi and Sarah "Congrats on whatever thing you guys have going, and also... you look gorgeous Sarah" I said winking before disconnecting.

**The Next Day:**

Every member of the operation, all three teams and their bullhead crews had gathered in the HQ building to listen to a transmission from the Brigadier Carvel, Major Donavon and Gregory who it turns out had spent the last year working with the 117th Regiment, the same Regiment who rescued us during our trial. Carvel was explaining our newest.. and hopefully last mission. "Ok so long story short: The _White Fang _keeps a mountain stronghold where all of its Leadership, assassins and their families are kept hidden and safe from both us and the Atlesian government forces led by Major General James Ironwood. The location and route to this stronghold is only known by the _White Fang _leaders and the pilots who fly the airships to and from a transit base... which incidentally is the one that your fellow Simon tossed a nailed corpse into some months ago." The Brigadier rambled on about the base and the surveillance op his regiment put on.

"Yea Yea get to the point you blithering old fool!" Shauno called out. Causing everyone but me to laugh, even Kruger had a little chuckle but I wasn't amused. "Can it Shauno and let the Brigadier speak, this is important!" I growled. Shauno looked down in mock hurt "Since when did you and Sanderson trade bodies? I thought you had a sense of humour Simon." I raised my fist threateningly and Shauno shut up, not wanting to ended up impaled upon _Vindex Umbra. _I nodded to Carvel to continue. "As I was saying, we turned one of the pilots into a mole for information, we now know the location and route to the _White Fang _main base in Atlas, and it is imperative to move quickly before the Fang catches onto our plans... I estimate a 10 day window to execute the attack before they realise we know where they are and they move. You will be notified of the staging area and further details in the coming days, good day to you all." With that the transmission cut off.

"Well that settles it then, If I can't find and kill Schwarzer, I'll kill his family instead... that way he knows how I felt when the _White Fang _killed my family." I said as I turned from the team to retreat to my room in order to pack my gear. "Hey Simon, when you go to find him, we'll have your back." I heard Kale and Shauno call out in unison. I give them a thumbs up as I retreat to my room to prepare for the upcoming operation.

**8 Days Later: **

We had the last week constantly out in the forest training for what was to come, I personally thought we were ready for anything that the _Fang _had in that base. As we boarded our Bullhead to head to the coordinates that Brigadier Carvel had provided Roman ran up to our Bullhead "We must make a quick detour, I have organised with our suppliers for some special equipment for this assault. that will make this fight almost unlosable" He said quickly as he ducked through to the cockpit to give the change of course to the pilots. So instead of heading north, we found ourselves heading East towards a small plateau about 50km away, what met us there were several large _Nevermore _class air-cruisers hovering above the ground as well as swarms of Warhead gunships all emblazoned with the logo of the Atlesian Arms Corporation. On the ground was a Bullhead as well as a large unmarked transport ship which I guessed had our supplies. instructed us all to put our hoods up and pull down our balaclavas for reasons we didn't bother thinking about. Once we landed our team filed out and stood by the Bullhead as Roman walked out to meet the Atlesian Arms representative. _'so these are our suppliers, go figure... The White Fang hate theirs and SDC's labour practices with regards to Faunus.' _ I thought to myself as I saw the doors on the transport open and inside by my calculations 250 Atlesian Knight-130's. I heard low whistles of awe from Danny and Luke. "Hey Captain, reckon we can steal us a few of these?" Shauno pleaded like a kid in a candy store. Kruger merely grunted, ignoring Shauno. I looked over to my captain who seemed to be wearing a look of betrayal or at least anger.

After about 10 minutes Roman strolled back over to the bullhead "you guys continue to the rally point... I'll give the transport's crew the coordinates and guide them to it. And try not to get lost, I know you guys are useless at following directions." He added onto the end just for the sake of being a condescending cockbite, We all flipped him off as he swaggered away in his usual pimp way twirling the cane in his hands. After we had boarded the Bullhead and took off Kruger smacked the bulkhead that separated us from the pilots, "Fuck it all! This was All a goddamned sham!" he growled loudly and violently. "What do you mean sir?" came the reply from a very worried Sanderson who obviously hadn't seen his friend and commander lose his cool often. "Torchwick, maybe the Black Fist as a whole, but I know for a certainty that Roman and by extension all of us are simply stooges for SDC and Atlesian Arms. Did you see Roman give the official any Lien whatsoever? nope... not one! Atlesian Arms would never give away so many weapons away for free unless they were in control!" Kruger yelled indignantly at us, obviously very stressed at this revelation at the waste of a year of his life working with Roman. The rest of the team, especially Shauno and Kale who knew what corporations were like with money... and personnel saw wore similar expressions of hurt and outrage. "Well that would explain why our SSB commander was so damned eager to see us volunteer for service with Roman once they found out we had joined the Black Fist and then make those deals with us for the Faunus prisoners !" I shook my head "Guys, we can deal with this later... but right now we have got one hell of a fight coming our way." I yell angrily, not wanting them to get distracted from what lay ahead in the next day or two.

The rest of the trip went smoothly and silently, within the hour we had landed in a large flat mountain valley, that now teemed with the 1000 men of the 117th regiment of the Black Fist as well as dozens of Bullheads being loaded with troops and 8 Warhead gunships loaded out with various munitions. As we landed I saw several familiar faces belonging to my old training team and in an instant my bad mood disappeared , despite the Bullhead still being a good 10m off the ground I leapt out and landed in a snow heap. Gregory scooped me up and pulled me into a bear hug "It is so damned good to see you man, jeez is that some stubble i see on your face? guess my little wingman really is growing up aye Simmo?" I chuckled at my friend and struggled out of the hug in order to breathe again. "Oi Simon, Is that your Boyfriend? I didn't know you swung that way man? Never again will I feel safe in the Barrack's Shower room!" Kale said in the middle of his laughter while Shauno gave me a knowing wink. "Oh yeah that is rich coming from the two guys who share a room? wouldn't be surprised if you shared the bed as well!" I fired back and flipped them off sarcastically. The marksmen merely laughed it off and headed off with the rest of the team towards the staging area. "Come with us Simon, we got permission for all five of us to work as a team in the upcoming assault." Sarah said tugging on my arm, which earned a wolf whistle from the ever watching duo of marksmen.

We all found a small quiet corner of the Valley to sit in after laying out a thermal rug. "So Simon, What is it like working with the only Black Fist unit independent of any Regimental Command, High Command's personal enforcers in other words?" came the Question from Levi, who was always the most curious in the group. I chuckled _'If only you knew just who "High Command" really was' _I thought to myself in reference to Kruger's revelation. "It is hectic Levi, all sorts of missions come up... though mostly assassination or snatch and grab type raids. What about you guys?" I reply, being deliberately vague. My friends all looked at each other "Well at first all of us were attached to grim extermination teams in each regiment... but one of the positive side effects of thousands of armed people and Faunus infesting the wilderness is that Grim tend to thinned out pretty regularly, so the grim extermination squads quickly became hit squads for five of the six regiments in the Black Fist, you were meant to have been sent to the last Regiment, but Roman seconded you instead." came Levi's reply, which finally explained why I had seen so few grim in the last several months. "Right well that actually makes sense seeing as we were trained like huntsmen and huntresses, next question: How damned long have you and Sarah been hitting it?" I asked shamelessly _'Damn... Kale and Shauno are rubbing off on me.' _Everyone looked a bit shocked how bluntly I asked that. "Umm well we have been seeing each other for about four months now, between missions you know." Sarah said as her face went deep crimson and Levi laughed nervously, I simply laughed hysterically at their reaction.

We spent the next several hours catching up and finding out what the other had been up to in the last year. until near sunset we were called to board one of the many bullheads in the staging area in preparation for the assault. Once I saw the rest of Rum Squad boarding the Bullhead next to ours. "COOOOOOOOOEEEEEEE!" I called out to get their attention over the roar of Bullhead engines and the grumble of the transport loaded with Atlesian Knights droning above. They all turned and waved and nodded to acknowledge they had seen me before boarding their craft.

After boarding our Bullhead and it took off I stepped over to Gregory, "hey man... how exactly did you get the location of this place anyway?" Gregory shrugged "We found out that the family of one of the Pilots had been sold to the SDC after being caught up in one of your team's raids on a Faunus village, he wanted them back and was willing to swap the information for his family and a way out of the war. He was reunited with his family for all of 30 seconds before the guns of the 6th Noble Company mowed them down, he certainly got his way out... just not the one that was agreed upon." He replied deadpanned, with the slightest tinge of regret. I nodded slowly, assessing my friend to try and work out what was going through his mind. Gregory sighed thoughtfully "Hey Simon. Have you ever wanted to get away from all of this and try to make a normal life?" He looked me in the eyes, the stress and exhaustion written all over his face. The question took me by surprise "Well no I haven't, I have only been focused on staying alive long enough to complete my revenge upon anyone I could find that was involved in my parent's death. I haven't given any thought whatsoever to what comes after I finally catch Schwarzer. besides, now is not the time for this sentimental bullshit that can wait until after we level this place to the ground." I say in a gung-ho manner and I smack Gregory in the shoulder. It was then that the intercom on the Bullhead sounded, it was the pilot "60 seconds till landing, it is going to be hot as the Vacuo deserts, so keep your heads down and weapons up kiddies!" We all looked to each other and nodded as we readied our weapons, I drew _Vindex Umbra _and set it to gun mode. As the Bullhead doors opened I steeled myself for a bloodbath and spared one final thought for my target. _'Ready or not Schwarzer... here I come!' _

**... TO BE CONTINUED**

**A/N:** Finally finishing this chapter at 5:20am? damn where did my night go haha! So after much thought, I have decided to split Simon's saga into two stories... first off will be _"From Hunted to Hunter" _which will be focused around Simon before he attends Beacon and I shall place his adventures once he actually attends Beacon into a separate story once this one is completed. Also DOCTOR Oobleck is now a certified BadAss MotherFucker!

I hope you all enjoy the latest chapter and please remember Read and Review people... your comments and questions are always appreciated and help motivate me to keep writing. - A very tired CC signing off.


	12. A Fight for Revenge and Survival

**A/N: **A quick question for you all: What do you think of my chapter lengths? Too long, too short or about right? Because I personally love long vividly detailed chapters, but I know that 6000 chapters could be off putting to some. I ask this because I' am willing to accommodate my writing style for my readers. Now for the Climax of Simon's Quest for Revenge. -CC

Chapter 12: A Fight for Revenge and Survival.

The Bullhead doors opened and before us silhouetted in the sunset was a large once abandoned city that was now aflame as Warhead gunships strafed buildings and hundreds of Atlesian Knights and Black Fist troopers were storming the outskirts. We on the other hand were hovering over an area towards the centre of a snow covered park in the middle of the city. "Ok people lets go, go, go!" Gregory bellowed, once again taking charge of us as he leaped out of the open door down into the snow. I followed out second taking my place beside Gregory "Ok mate, where are we off to first?" I asked as i raked the bolt on my weapon. "Carvel tasked us to sweep towards the centre of the city to try and take out the Fang's leadership structure seeing as our informant also provided a layout of the city. Ok now follow me, and keep your radios on" Gregory whispered as he began jogging towards the city. It took us all of five minutes to run into trouble, a party of about 10 _White Fang _running ammo to their comrades manning the defences came across our path. "Oh crap, open fire!" Gregory yelled as he lifted his trusty rifle. I stepped forward and hosed the entire area down with _Vindex Umbra_ as the ammo bearers ducked for cover and their escorts tried in vain to cut us down, the few rounds they managed to get off either missed or were absorbed by our auras. This first fight was over within a minute without us withstanding a single scratch.

As we continued to run through the town, we saw several families: unarmed women and children huddled in the rubble of buildings bombed out by the Warheads, the only reason we didn't cut them down was due to the limitations on our ammo and time supplies. I looked around and up nervously as we walked down and alleyway "I don't trust this." I whispered to Gregory moments before several previously covered windows on both sides of the street swung open and _White Fang _snipers popped out taking snapshots at us. We all dived for cover, suddenly pinned down by the fire, "Oh this is just great, anyone got any Ideas?" Alex called out from behind a snow covered pile of rubble. "Well we could call in the Warheads and bomb those buildings into oblivion?" I suggest, wanting to see some heavy duty explosions up close and personal. "Sorry Simon, We don't have comms with the Warheads, we're currently on our own." Gregory replied sheepishly, which earned him a smack over the head from me. "Well then, Gregory... you and me will attack the left side buildings, while the rest of you clear the right side. we will meet at the end of this goddamned street!" I yelled as I raised my aura and charged up before diving into the nearest building on the left side of the street. Gregory joined me a moment later, his rifle slung over his back and his flame gauntlets and daggers out and ready, Gregory led the way up through the building, checking each room for the snipers. Eventually making it to the higher levels we heard several voices as well as shots from weapons. Slowly we worked out way to the door, Gregory raised three fingers and counted down. Upon hitting 0 he bashed through the door and let rip with his flame gauntlets, dousing the entire area in dust fuelled flames. followed by me who shot down the currently burning snipers... a mercy really.

Gregory and I continued in this same patter through every building along the street, despite the fact most buildings were empty we weren't willing to take the chance of getting ambushed. Upon reaching the end of the street we regrouped with the others, I noticed a decent sized gash on Alex's forehead. "What happened to you Alex? something get the jump on you?" I asked with a chuckle, the reply came from Sarah "The dunce wasn't looking where he was going and decided to head butt an iron bar that was hanging out of a ceiling" she said in her normal sing song voice. I looked at my teammate and merely rolled my eyes. "I suggest we move from building to building via the roofs, Snipers will have a harder time hitting us as we run across them." Levi suggested, trying to avoid another round of time consuming building clearing. I shrugged indifferently and Gregory sighed, not looking forward to having to haul his bulky frame over rooftops "Oh all right, let's go people" he said as he reluctantly pulled himself up and we crossed into the next street before ascending one of the buildings and beginning to leap from rooftop to rooftop. our progress sped up immensely despite there still being sporadic sniper fire in our direction, however the bulk of the _White Fang _troops were in the outskirts confronting the main assault.

It took all of 30 minutes to traverse several blocks and reach the area that the informant had said contained the Headquarters of the _White Fang _in Atlas. We were laying prone on a rooftop looking down on what had once been the local council chambers, the area was surrounded by armed _White Fang _soldiers and even a few Atlesian Knight-130's that had no doubt been pilfered from the facilities and trains they had raided _'No wonder the SDC and Atlesian Arms want us to eradicate the White Fang for them' _I thought to myself, in a moment of reflection on what Kruger had said about us being controlled and manipulated and mislead by the major corporations.I snapped myself out of my private thoughts and tuned back into what Gregory was saying. "Ok In about three minutes the Warheads will make a scheduled strafing run of the courtyard and bomb the building itself, our job will be to kill anything that is left moving after that. No fancy heroics, don't put yourselves at risk, one lost teammate is enough for one campaign." He said wearily. Upon hearing Ben's death being referenced, Alex shot me an angry glare obviously blaming me for his friend's death. That glare stabbed right though my heart... what little of it remained that is. Right on queue four Warheads came through and unleashed a hail of bombs and Gatling gun fire into the area below us, Once the smoke cleared we saw that the courtyard was now littered with mangled battle mechs and dismembered bodies as well as a few disorientated survivors and that the council chambers had massive holes blown into it and had begun to catch fire. "Charge!" Gregory yelled as he leaped from the building's roof and barrel rolled into the snow, regaining his feet within a moment. I looked back to my other teammates and spied Levi and Sarah steal a momentary kiss before we all jumped together to join Gregory.

As I hit the ground and rolled out of my fall, I swung _Vindex Umbra _up to my hip and took aim with the laser aiming device fixed to it. I saw one of the Atlesian Knights begin to get up, I didn't let it as I pumped a good 25 or so rounds into it before scanning around for more targets but finding none. The five of us stacked up on the front door with me surprise surprise on point, I swung around into the door way to be confronted with a pair of Atlesian Knights. On instinct I let loose with my weapon, emptying nearly 100 rounds into the hallway riddling both mechs with bullet holes. The others took the lead from me as I changed cartridge pouches for my weapon "Simmo, try not to be so jumpy... we only have so much ammunition for you to blow away like that." Gregory called back. as he readied his gauntlets for action. There were very few survivors in the upper levels due to the bombs and none after we had found them, but as we progressed down we found an entrance to a subterranean area. "Guess we're going to be 6ft under prematurely?" I said in a half hearted idea of a joke, which earned me several eye rolls, another death stare from Alex and a clip across the head from Gregory before he led the way into the lower levels.

It was dark, but we could hear a lot of voices as well as sounds of smashing and as well as paper shredders and the smell of burning paper. "Seems they are trying to destroy evidence before we get our hands on it! We must hurry." Levi whispered as he took the lead: his rifle raised as he entered the first set of offices, finding and gunning down several clerks and officers. As we continued our sweep of the bunker we eventually found a large operations room filled with the most high ranking _White Fang _officials. Gregory fired a shot off into the air which got everyone's attention, guns and swords were raised to us by clerks and officers who hadn't tasted a real fight in years. Gregory, Levi and I simply laughed right at their faces. An older man who had horns like a bull stood up with a large axe pointed at us "Attack my brothers and sisters... FOR THE FANG... FOR FAUNUS EVERYWHERE!"He bellowed as he charged us, being joined by the dozens of other Faunus in the room. I let rip with _Vindex Umbra, _gunning down several Faunus before one got close enough to take a swipe with a sword at me which caused me to back flip to avoid the strike and to give me time to swap my weapon to its bladed mode and to detach the cartridge pouch.

Charging back at the Faunus which took another horizontal swipe at me, I lunged to the right charged straight in, leading with my shoulder which knocked the Faunus off their balance which allowed me to plunge one of my weapon's blades into their back, right where the spine was. Satisfied that this Faunus wasn't getting back up I charged into the fray, cutting and slashing at anything that moved without engaging any one enemy in particular until i came back to back with Gregory. "Just like old times aye Gregory, I still owe you for saving my life... let's see if I can repay that debt today!" I yelled before charging off again to attack another officer, catching him by surprise and taking off both his legs at the knee with a horizontal sweep and plunging a blade right through his heart. The fight raged on for all of about 10 minutes until only the axe wielding general who had ordered his men to attack us was left, bleeding, battered and disarmed... in more ways than one. The General spoke, his tone dripping with venom "You think you have won some magnificent victory here? No, all you have achieved is your own destruction, The _White Fang _will rebuild and when we do it will be bigger, better and more adaptable to you corporate cronies and nothing, especially not a group of kids will stop us!" He finished off by spitting at Alex, Alex simply strode up to him and punched him fair in the jaw. Gregory trudged over and grabbed the general by the scruff of the neck and gagged him with a torn piece of his uniform "Now we have what we came here for, I'll signal Carvel for a pick up." With that he began pushing and shoving our new prisoner back the way we had come, upon reaching the surface once more we hid in the rubble and waited for a Bullhead to pick us and the prisoner up.

As we heard the whine of the Bullhead engines coming in to pick us up I did one last scan of the area before boarding and that is when I saw it, on the far side of the courtyard was him, for the first time in three years I had Schwarzer right in front of me. I didn't hesitate for a moment I knelt down into a sprinters start, _Vindex Umbra _in blade mode held across my back and I took off after him my Aura glowing blood red as I charged Schwarzer who merely took off in the opposite direction. "COME BACK HERE YOU COWARD! FIGHT ME DAMMIT!" I screamed as I once gave chase putting everything I could into catching him completely ignoring my teammates cries for me to stop or the battle raging around me. I chased him through several sectors of the town before I saw him run up a toppled obelisk that formed a ramp onto a flat topped three storey building. I smirked _'Big mistake cockbite, you're trapped up there!'_ and I charged up the obelisk, front flipping towards the end onto the building. Landing in a crouched position ready to charge. Looking ahead I see Schwarzer standing there, not even bothering to draw his katana. "I see you decided to join me where there is nowhere to run or hide... how foolish of you. Isn't this just such a wonderful view... the first real battle Remnant has seen since Ruben Field in Vale two years ago, such a wonderful view for this wonderful event, when I finally finish a job that should never taken me more than three hours, not three years." He said in a confident manner drawing his katana with a series of flourishes. I didn't respond to his taunts, my fury channelled into my Aura as i prepared to charge him.

Schwarzer simply stood there as I charged in, low and my weapon held perpendicular to my body across my body. As I approached him I kicked off the ground and flipped above Schwarzer, twirling my weapon in my hands so it was vertical and plunged it downwards towards the top of his skull, only for him to vanish like smoke and reappear a few feet away. I was surprised enough that I forgot to put my feet out to land, instead landing in a heap. I flipped myself straight back up and charged in again with a diagonal slash which Schwarzer dodged with a simple back flip and drew a pistol from a shoulder holster, firing several shots which I either dodged or absorbed with my aura. Schwarzer chuckled flourished his Katana "Come on, you call that fighting? My daughter can do better than that!" he goaded. I growled and once more leaped in, this time my staff's forward blade crossing with his Katana. I began pushing forward, lashing out with several strikes before sweeping low at Schwarzer's knees with a kick. upon missing I looked _Vindex Umbra's _shaft against my side and reversed the direction of my spin and put all my weight into a sweeping slash at his midsection, Only as I turned to be met with a savage boot to my face which sent me flying across the roof top. I hit the raised side of the roof top luckily my aura absorbed the hit. Shaking my head in anger I hauled myself and reset my fighting stance my weapon held horizontally on my left side with my right hand forward, left hand towards the rear. I eyed down a now laughing Schwarzer "Oh Simon, how have you lived so long and been such a thorn in my side with such a horrible technique? no wonder so many of your recruits die on their trial if you are the standard they are trained to!" I knew he was goading me but I simply saw red at my fallen comrades being belittled in such a way.

I let loose a blood curdling scream and ran at him, making a feint with my blade but instead shoulder charging him, smacking him square in the face which knocked him off balance. I pushed my advantage and began several whirling blows to utilise both of my staff's blades and to hit high, low and midsection. I unleashed the full fury of my aura, allowing it to augment my strength and push Schwarzer back towards the edge of the building, hoping to push him off to his well deserved death. I kept cutting, slashing and stabbing, inching Schwarzer ever closer to the edge until he eventually was against the raised side. With a scream I lunged at him once more as I thrust my blade towards him, only for him to jump up as to make my thrust miss low, as he came down he landed and flipped off my weapon and landed behind me. I lost my balance and nearly went careening off the building myself, suddenly I found myself cornered and my advantage lost. Schwarzer began assaulting me, aiming for my limbs trying to dismember me slowly.

As he came in for a downward slash I barrel rolled out of the way and then lunged into a series of front flips taking me to the opposite side of the roof top. I felt my aura draining quickly from the amount of exertion just to survive against his few yet punishing attacks let alone what I spent in my assaults onto him. I stood there huffing eyeing off Schwarzer who smirked triumphantly "I think it is time we ended this don't you, your amateurish attacks have lost their comedic value on me." He said simply before charging me, not to be outdone I summoned as much strength as I could and charged in to meet him. We exchanged several blows, I managed to land a few but his aura merely absorbed them like they weren't anything. Slowly he wore me down, I felt my aura stretching to breaking point until eventually as he landed a diagonal cut with the forked tip of his katana to my face it gave out an I caught the full force of the blow, which left a pair of deep cuts over my right eye stretching from my eyebrows to my lower jaw he then connected a roundhouse kick to my ribs, of which I felt several crack and which sent me flying again into the raised side of the building, which gashed the back of my head.

Slowly Schwarzer who so confident in victory lowered his protective aura advanced upon me and spoke in a tone so condescending it put Roman to shame. "You actually thought this fight would result in anything but your death? stupid, stupid kid... I have been fighting for longer than you have been alive and you have the gall to challenge me? Well I got news for you...merely having a flame for revenge doesn't mean victory against someone who is leagues ahead of you in combat ability!" By this time he was basically right on top of me and he raised his katana in preparation for his killing blow... a blow which never came. For Schwarzer's torso quite literally exploded in his liver and right lung areas, a moment later two loud gunshots boomed over... seems I had two guardian snipers to thank later. I slowly hauled myself up onto my feet and picked up Schwarzer's Katana before standing over his still living form "You're right, merely having a cause such as revenge won't mean victory... but having friends who share in that cause certainly do help, as you just found out. This is for my humanity and for my parents you motherfucker!" I said as I plunged it deep into his heart.

I collapsed to my knees, still gripping the sword... tears flowing freely from my eyes as I screamed into the twilight sky "It's over, It is finally over... I did it, I finally brought justice and retribution to those who killed you" I spoke softly to my parents, despite them being long since dead. I stood and picked up _Vindex Umbra _and collapsed it back into its travel mode. Before leaving the rooftop I searched Schwarzer's body finding only one personal item: A photo of Schwarzer and what i assumed to be his daughter which I pocketed. I gingerly made my way towards the edge of the rooftop, only to be met by the hum of engines as a Bullhead pulled up alongside, carrying Gregory and my team as well as Kale and Shauno "We thought you could use a lift, before your stubborn... holy fucking hell what happened to your face!" Gregory exclaimed, seeing the deep cuts and bruises on my face. I didn't respond, I just jumped into the Bullhead and slumped into a corner. I could feel the blackness of unconsciousness closing in, before it consumed me however I withdrew the photo I had taken from Schwarzer, looking it over I saw a small caption with my last ounce of strength before I slipped under I read it: Loving Father and Loyal Daughter... Schwarzer and Blake Belladonna.

**A/N: ****BOOM** have a plot twist... that is all - CC Signing off.


	13. A Whole New Perspective

**A/N: **In the home stretch now, last story arc before Simon heads to Beacon for all those people asking me :) Also I have gotten your feedback on chapter lengths: Verdict is they will not be cut down at all, thank-you for those people who replied to my question your replies are much appreciated.

**SHOUTOUTS: **To Blue Hurricane with their story "Children and Soldiers"! It is well worth checking out... it even features an idea or two offered up to the author by yours truly -CC

Chapter 13: A Whole New Perspective: Mountain Base medical bay (three days after the battle)

As I lay in the bed in the medbay allowing my many injuries and depleted aura to heal I looked once more over the photo I had taken from Schwarzer's corpse, specifically I looked at his daughter, whom despite hating Faunus and their actions against humanity, I could emphasise with. This girl Blake whom like me had lost parents in the most violent of ways. Only difference being that my parents were guilty of no crime, unlike Schwarzer who had committed many crimes against humanity, a small corner of my mind wondered if she had found out the bad news and wondered if she was ok. _'What the actual hell? Did I just hope an enemy was ok? Don't go bloody soft dude... that is how you get dead!' _I mentally rebuked myself for that moment of empathy. I placed the photo back under my pillow and relaxed _'May as well catch up on the three years worth of sleep deprivation I have suffered while serving my species.'_ I mused to myself as I rolled gently onto my side and closed my eyes to rest.

I was only asleep for maybe an hour maybe 90 minutes before the door to the medbay was slammed open with enough force to crack the wall with the door knob. "Simon out of bed you lazy, now even more ugly fuck! team meeting NOW!" It was Shauno's voice, and it sounded frantic. My eyes snapped open and I sat up "What Shauno? what the hell is worth getting me out of the first comfortable bed I have slept in for three years?!" I growled, ignoring the distressed look on his face. Not wanting to deal with my smartarsed attitude at this point whistled out the door, in walked the much taller and bulkier Kale who simply picked me up and flopped me over his shoulder and proceeded to carry me to our barracks. Upon reaching our barracks I saw two sets of packed suitcases and Atlesian military field packs by the door, standing in front of them in Atlesian military dress uniforms was Captain Ty Kruger and Corporal David Sanderson both of which were saying their goodbyes. The colour from my face drained "And just where do you think you're going Kruger?" I said demandingly. Kruger turned and looked me in the eye "Me? well I' am going home, to my family... I've done enough fighting, for 35 years it is all I have done. From the Faunus Rights Revolution 30 years ago, The Dust Raider Wars, the Vacuo Insurrection Expedition and now the White Fang War, my body just can't cope with the stresses anymore." He said, pointing to his aged and scarred facial features. "Besides, I want to spend a few years with my grandchildren before I grow too old to play with them and teach the boys how to shoot like a pro." he added as an afterthought.

I shot Kruger a glare before my expression softened into one of partial understanding, I know I wouldn't want to be still fighting when I was a couple years off of age 60. Turning to Sanderson "And what about you David? you're meant to lead us when Kruger isn't here... where are you running off to?" Our usually gruff and regimented 2iC simply shrugged "where Ty goes, as do I... So I' am going back into the civilian world and try to get into university, get a cushy well paying job and NEVER go back to slogging it out in the bush full of things trying to kill me. I also implore ALL of you to consider following us, The _White Fang _is beaten, its units scattered and leaderless... we have done enough. It is time for all of us to try and regain some normality in our lives. Besides, after what we found out during our little detour before the battle I don't think it is a good idea to stick with Roman, it can't possibly end well for anyone involved." At that reminder Ty nodded "He is correct... If the SDC and Atlesian Arms are really running the show, there is no telling what they could order Roman to do next, which may not be against Faunus. and frankly I'd hate to see you guys end up like Bourbon did during the battle" The old captain said referring to how all eight members of Bourbon Squad were killed during the battle a few days ago to which we all looked down in a moment of silence for fallen comrades.

"Be that as it may Ty, I'll be staying on for a while. At least to ensure the Fang is well and truly defeated." I replied. "Ah screw it, We'll hang around as well... someone's got to keep Mr Scarface alive, he always needs saving according to his mates." Kale and Shauno chimed in a joking manner. I reached up and lightly brushed my face, still covered in over 100 stitches. Outside we heard the whining of Bullhead engines warming up and Kruger sighed "That's our ride out of here... I just want you all to know, you did well. One day humanity will look back on what we did and be thankful that someone had the guts to do unsavoury but necessary things for the good of the species. I wish each of you good luck and It has been an honour to serve with each one of you, even if some of you drove me around the bend on every occasion possible" Kruger said while starring directly at Kale and Shauno who whistled innocently. Picking up their bags and marching in perfect military step out to the waiting aircraft. The remaining six of us lined up outside of our barracks and watched the men who had led and guided us for over 12 months moving on with their lives, leaving us all with a sense of foreboding uncertainty. As the Bullhead took off I saw Lachlan snap to attention and give a proper military salute as a sign of respect to Kruger and Sanderson, at this the rest of us copied him. Looking up I saw Kruger standing in the open door of the Bullhead returning our salute as the airship sped out of sight heading South.

After the Bullhead had disappeared I saw Lachlan smack the wall of the Barracks building "Fuck it all, first we lose Bourbon to the last man and now our leaders have left us! That means the only Captain left is that fucking lunatic Shevchenko and Whiskey and they are a bunch of loose cannons. Let's just hope that they don't get Roman's ear or we'll all end up dead!" Danny and Luke simply shrugged "If those assholes get us mixed into anything stupid, We'll see to it that they pay the price and go out with a bang." they said in unison. The six of us looked to each other and nodded: a silent, unspoken agreement was entered into, to look out for one another no matter what now that Kruger and Sanderson now no longer shielded us from any of Roman's or Whiskey's schemes.

**6 Weeks Later: **

My recuperation had been completed two weeks ago when the last of my stitches had been removed and I had completed my medical trial as proscribed by the base doctor. Now I sat in the HQ building waiting for my first mission, in fact the first mission at all we have taken part in since the battle. Roman walked in smoking a cigar and twirling his pimp cane as he always did as he walked in. "Now people, now that you have had six weeks of laziness, it is back to work. First up is a bit of reorganising. Rum Squad is to be disbanded, Luke and Danny will join Whiskey Squad, while Kale, Shauno Lachlan and _The Kid _will form a Sniper/infiltration cell seeing as Simon and Lachlan have both received sniper training from Rum Squads marksmen." I scowled at once again being referred to as a kid, but that was dwarfed by the anger I felt at our team being split up, no longer able to support or protect each other. "What the fuck Roman... No, I refuse to go along with this! Rum Squad sticks together no matter what!" Kale yelled at the redhead, the rest of us joined in with similar comments or insults towards Roman. "Shut it you lot... with the losses we have incurred, we must make changes as no new recruits are coming to replace the men that have died or have left. Whiskey lost two of its men in the fight and I need at least one full strength team! I have made up my mind and it won't be changing." Roman said commandingly. We all flipped him off and sat back down.

"Now as I was saying, It is time to get back to work, routing the last pockets of _White Fang_ resistance and breaking their will to resist humanities dominance. Your objective is to search each house and gather the population in the town square in order flush out any Fang members, arrest any you find and their families,. Bullheads leave in 45... now get going you idiots!" Roman ended on a condescending note as always. "Hey Roman, have you ever tried to NOT be a condescending ass?" I called out as I left the HQ building not giving Roman a chance to snap at me. As I entered the barracks I saw Kale and Shauno fine tuning and cleaning their rifles. "This is total bullshit, I can't believe they are just going to split us up! it should be Whiskey that gets broken up those incompetent cockbites!" Kale fumed as he worked his sniper rifle's bolt. "Fucking A man... I swear one of these days I will put a round right up his arse if he thinks he can get away with this!" Shauno replied equally angry. I Ignored them and went to my room to kit up. I sat on my bed and began sharpening _Vindex Umbra's _blades and polishing them as well as cleaning out the barrel and action in case things got violent. It took me all of 25 minutes to finish up my preparations including applying my camouflage paint for an additional intimidation factor.

With nothing else to do for a good 15 minutes I reached into my drawer and withdrew the Belladonna photo _'Is this really the right thing to be doing? Arresting entire families even children for the crimes of one person? Does this make us as bad or even worse than the Fang?' _I sat there pondering this moral dilemma I now found myself in. I was pulled from my pondering by a bang on the door "Bullheads leave in 5 Simon, better snap to!" I heard Lachlan's deadpanned voice say as a reminder to get my ass into gear, placing the photo back into my drawer and grabbing my gear I scrambled aboard a Bullhead with what was left of Rum Squad and off we flew. No one spoke, no one joked. Not even Shauno or Kale. I think we all were reflecting on where we had been, what we had done and what we were about to do, I know I certainly was... well when I wasn't nearly throwing up from airsickness that is _'Ugh, no matter how much I fly, I'll never get used to it!'_ I thought to myself as the Bullhead sped North-East.

The Bullhead flew for about an hour before it came to hover above a small bluff to allow Shauno and Kale to dismount and set up Sniper overwatch. It then flew towards the small village 500m away where the other Bullhead carrying Whiskey was already hovering over the town square, Lachlan and I jumped out, weapons raised as we joined Whiskey to begin sweeping the town. Lachlan took point, a Shotgun loaded with slug rounds raised as he kicked down the first door, we swept the house, eventually finding a husband and wife with two toddlers hiding under a bed. "All right you feral scum... out into the square NOW!" Lachlan barked, when the Father stood up to Lachlan he simply slammed the stock of the shotgun into the Faunus' face. My eyes locked with that of the man's young son and the kid's look of absolute terror and confusion at what was happening pierced my heart and raised very painful memories. But I did nothing to stop Lachlan, for the man had acted in a threatening manner towards us. As we pushed the family into the square we saw a man try to bolt from the Square... he made it probably 100m until his torso exploded from 2 high calibre sniper rounds impacting him in a similar fashion to Schwarzer's demise. This grizzly death was followed by much screaming and people cowering on the ground. "Find that man's family and place them under arrest!" Came Shevchenko's order which was followed out with extreme and brutal prejudice.

Once we had the entire town's population in the Square I saw Shevchenko on his radio, no doubt getting further order's from Roman. I looked to Lachlan, who as always looked impassive, his shotgun at his waist aiming into the crowd of about 200 scared Faunus, about 80% of whom were women or children I just realised. After about 45 minutes of waiting in the open I heard the familiar whine of Bullheads, about 5 by my count. I looked around and spotted them coming in, I also noticed the SDC SSB logo on them _'Oh no... and once more we are delving into slavery again? What kind of people are these Schnee's?' _I thought angrily to myself as I looked at the children whose lives were about to be ruined. _'How come I never felt this angry the other times we did this? It isn't the first time we have sent women and kids off to the SDC labour camps... I really am going soft!' _I mentally rebuked myself once more for another moment of emotional weakness. As the Bullhead's landed armed troopers exited from two of them and began going around and taking all the adult males as well as several women and teenagers and herding them into the three empty Bullheads. Once they were all aboard a SSB officer walked over to Shevchenko and handed him a large briefcase, no doubt full of Lien for our _'Service to Humanity' _I scowled _'I thought we would actually be going after what's left of the Fang... not after civilians again' _I mentally fumed for reason's I couldn't explain.

Once the SDC Bullheads flew away we began walking out of town towards the bluff where Shauno and Kale were situated. As I walked through the still cowering and traumatised crowd I tried to keep my eyes pointed straight ahead, doing anything to avoid locking eyes with any kids... I failed miserably as I looked into the eyes of those frightened kids, I saw myself and my heart melted... and then broke. _'What have I done?' _My mind cried as my long suppressed conscience came back with a vengeance. As we walked back to the bluff to board the waiting Bullheads I walked in silence, my mind once more in moral a turmoil it hasn't experienced in years. Kale and Shauno noticed the distressed look on my face and gave me a knowing nod and a thumbs up, letting me know they got my back and that they understood what was going through my mind, not that it really helped. Upon returning to base and helping Danny and Luke move into Whiskey's barracks I retreated to my room and locked the door, ignoring any and all knocks or calls from Kale and Shauno and the odd one from Lachlan. I just had to get my head around all these emotions that were swarming my head and heart, In the end I just curled up and cried myself to sleep having reverted from the hardened combat vet to the small, scared and lonely kid I had always been since that faithful night three years ago.

**A/N: **This Arc will have an entirely different tempo to the last one and an entire different perspective from Simon as his mind and heart are set free from the obsession of revenge.


	14. A Whole New Path

**A/N: **This Chapter Brings "From Hunted to Hunter" up to 50,000+ words... COOKIES FOR ALL MY READERS who have supported and motivated me to write so much in such a short period of time! Thank-you all of you and I hope you all enjoy your RWBYday today :D

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own RWBY... or Prof. Port would be sent to fat camp and "Don't flirt with female students 101" classes.

Chapter 14: A whole New Path (Set 6 months After Chapter 13) Simon's PoV

As I read a letter I had received from Kruger detailing how fearing for his and his families safety, he had relocated to Mistral I heard a glass smashing as it was chucked at a wall. "Those bloody Whiskey Squad fucks and their money hungry asshole of a captain!" Kale fumed after another village raid for White Fang terrorists went to shit and Shevchenko used some stupid excuse to put an entire village of 250 Faunus into the custody of the SDC for the labour camps... for a very handsome fee of course. "I heard Whiskey each pocketed nearly 100,000 Lien each, no wonder Danny and Luke became so damned chummy with then and have began acting like a couple of regular pricks!" Shauno growled, sharing Kale's distaste for Whiskey and how our former teammates were now just as bad as them. I looked over to the two marksmen "Got to agree with you there... If we get given another village raid for Shevchenko to fuck up, he and Roman's manhood have a date with the sharp end of _Vindex Umbra_" I said in a semi-humorous voice, trying to cheer my teammates up, It kinda crept me out to see them so serious and pissed off all the time as they had been in the last month or so.

The marksmen turned to me and both cracked a small smirk at the thought of the two most narcissistic people they knew losing their manhood "Dude we will legit pay you to do that and film it. I would watch that repeatedly!" Shauno said still chuckling for the first time in what seemed forever. It was then that Lachlan entered the room from a meeting with Roman that the two marksmen and myself refused to attend due to burning desires to slaughter the greedy redheaded bastard. "Pack your bags ladies... we're going back to civilisation for a week" He said with just a hint of happiness, which was rare for the normally emotionless and calculating man. "Define civilisation, is the war over... we finally allowed to leave this mountain prison?" Kale said hopefully, regretting staying on now that the Black Fist command was no longer allowing people to leave the group (without being labelled deserters and placing a death mark on them). "Sorry man, but apparently despite wiping the floor with the Fang, the war still rages. The four of us leave for the Atlesian capital in the morning, making a stop at a Black Fist base along the way to pick up some civilian clothing seeing as I suspect that none of us have any right now. I have the address for our accommodations while in the capital." came Lachlan's deadpanned reply.

At hearing this the four of us looked to each other with confusion, Kale being the first to speak up "By the looks of it we have got an assassination coming up, though I' am kind of worried about the fact we are beginning to operate within major cities controlled by the Atlesian government, this is a very dangerous escalation and could lead to a violent response from General Ironwood's army." he said cautiously once again adopting his serious tone that had taken over his normal sarcastic, smartass manner. Shauno on the other hand was smiling from ear to ear "Oh cheer up man, stop being such a downer, we get to go see the capital... Time for some R&R. If we find the time we could even take Simmo to a club and help find him a lady friend to show him a good time" He said cackling with laughter sending a wink my way. I went slightly red in the face at this comment from Shauno and exactly what he was implying. "Guys, focus... This is a mission, and probably a damned important one if they are risking sending us to the damned capital of Atlas!" Lachlan rebuked. "Well the mission of getting this teenage boy laid is also very important! I mean he is a damned virgin!" Came a humorous reply from Kale deciding to stop being so down in the dumps and join in on Shauno's antics. Lachlan merely growled and stomped away, never having been a fan of the marksmen's antics.

I looked to the pair of now laughing marksmen with a look of embarrassment and hopeful eagerness "Err, guys... were you serious about that?" Shauno and Kale looked at me and say my rose red face and then just fell down laughing "Oh my god, that face is just hilarious, we are so doing this!" Came the excited cry from Shauno who was choking and tearing up from the sheer amount of laughter this was causing him. Kale managed to rein in his laughs "Couldn't agree more... besides we all know how much women dig ugly ass facial scars and teenage bumfluff on 15 year old kids" he said in a smartass attempt at insulting the scars from my fight with Schwarzer and the fuzz covering my face due to no one in the camp except of course Roman having had access to razors in several months. "Oh fuck you Kale, At least I don't look like a ginger monkey with my facial hair unlike you!" I shot back in smugly. At this Kale stroked his red facial hair and looked down in mock hurt "I'll get you for that you motherfucker!" he said throwing the salt shaker that had been on the table near him at me. Catching the shaker on instinct I placed it on the table "Kale shoots and he gets blocked... just like what happens whenever he goes clubbing" I say before I completely lose it and run off to my room to escape the raging storm that Kale just became, which just caused Shauno to lose his shit and laugh even more.

As I looked around my room i saw my Scroll light up, walking over to it and opened it up. It was a video message from Gregory with an URGENT alert set to it, My eyebrows raised in curiosity I opened the message to see a image of my friend loaded down like a packhorse and the message began to play:

_To my closest friend Simon, I have deserted from the Black Fist, I simply could not deal with attacking innocent civilians anymore... I know your unit regularly did these types of raids during the war. But mine always was fighting actual Black Fist combatants and to me this work just demeans and degrades what it means to be a soldier of humanity. We were meant to have the moral high ground and be better than the Faunus... but this has simply disgusted me and convinced me that whoever actually leads the Black Fist is much worse than those poor bastards we slaughtered in that bunker so many months ago._

_I' am not the first, nor am I the last who will leave, but it is foreseeable that like the others that leave without permission I will become wanted by the fist... So I' am going into hiding, I cannot say where at this point but when the time is right I shall contact you again. I also Implore you to get out as well... The Black Fist is gearing up to go in a new direction, and from where I stand that direction will merely get anyone involved killed. Take care Simon... I know you're a survivor so you'll do what is right to keep your thick skull from getting bashed in or blown apart. Your friend and brother in arms Gregory Volker._

With that the transmission cut out, '_Good luck mate, you'll need it while you're still in Atlas' _I thought to myself hoping that Gregory could get out of Atlas and to another kingdom before The fist caught up with him. My fists curled in anger at the thought of fellow Black Fist soldiers hunting down Gregory or any other former member. I never agreed with the new rule of not allowing people to stay, like a conscript army... before the battle, people could come and go as they pleased from their units to see families or tend farms. Though most stayed due to their commitment to bringing down the Fang, now that that had been accomplished and they wanted to return to normality, only to be told you'll be shot if you do so. The _Black Fist _in my opinion had lost what it stood food... A beacon for the protection of humanity the moment they made a decision to turn their weapons on those who had loyally served them for up to the last three years. _'A new direction? Must have something to do with our new mission... '_ I concluded in my head as I began packing my few belongings for the trip into the capital, including a small rucksack full of 125,000 Lien that I had received from the SDC for the Faunus we had effectively sold to them as slave labour. Part of me wanted to just throw away this dirty blood money but I knew I'd need that money sooner or later... most probably sooner. So instead I tucked it into the bottom of my pack and set it near my door, deciding to get a good night's sleep before we departed.

**The Next Day (Atlesian Capital)**

Having spent the morning travelling on a Bullhead and then the early afternoon at a small Black Fist base just outside the capital picking up several new set's of clothes, seeing as according to the Black Fist who had been escorting us, our camo uniforms would stand out in the city _'No shit Sherlock' _I thought as I looked finished up having a shave, which had resulted in several small cuts due to this being the first time I had ever used a razor, which caused Kale and Shauno a lot of laugher at my expense as they watched after having demonstrated the appropriate way to handle a razor. "Jeez Simon, you did a more of a hatchet job on your face then Schwarzer did" Kale said while Shauno lay rolling on the bed coughing up his lungs from laughing too much. I growled and through the face towel I had just used to clean the blood off and dry my face with at Shauno. "Assholes" I muttered as I picked up the black slacks, tie and white business shirt that I had to wear for the trip in and returned to the bathroom, closing and locking the door to change out of my camo.

Upon realising I had no idea how to do a tie I growled and exited the bathroom to the marksmen who were still laughing at my attempts at shaving "Oi fuck faces, umm can one of you do a tie?" I asked with a pleading look. The pair of marksmen stopped laughing and looked at me holding the tie out... the stared at it for a moment then just began laughing even harder again "Oh my this is precious... you poor kid, can wield dangerous weapons and kill people but you get defeated by a simple razor blade and a tie!" Kale said rolling his eyes and shaking his head at my pathetic skills in anything not combat related. Finally he stepped over and put it on and showed me how to tie it. "Awwwwww he looks like he is ready for his first school dance... so handsome, so where's his date?" Shauno Said in a over-exaggerated feminine voice as he walked over to inspect me wearing fancy clothes such as these for the first time and rested his head on Kales shoulder putting on a exaggerated motherly act.

I rolled my eyes "I swear you guys are gay sometimes... mainly every night when I realise you guys share a bedroom." I shot as an insult to get back for this treating me as a child... as their child. This caused both marksmen to laugh, at least until Lachlan walked in furious "Hurry up you lazy, procrastinating shits... we leave in 10 minutes. I know that you two assholes are having particular enjoyment at expense of a teenager learning how to be a man, but time is short." he barked at the marksmen. Kale simply smirked and stood over Lachlan, being 9 inches taller "Time maybe short, but it isn't as short as you Lachie" He said smugly and chuckled for all of a second before Lachlan's fist connected at full force with Kale's nuts. "You were warned about jokes about my height and of calling me _Lachie_" Lachlan said, his voice dripping with venom before viciously glancing to Shauno and I before storming out of the room. "Well aint he just a kill joy" Shauno said before helping Kale up who had toppled over due to the pain in his crotch.

As we exited the base with our new bags full of clothes we were ushered over to the base commander stood by an aide who was carrying a tray. "Here are your fake identities, in case Atlesian authorities question you. Simon you are a posing as a huntsman in training so that you can openly carry your gun staff without suspicion for either that or the scar." The commander said handing me my papers, I didn't bother to listen to the rest of it, instead going to sit in the large luxury car that was to take us into the city. A couple minutes Kale jumped into the driver's seat, Lachlan had shotgun and Shauno jumped in the back with me and we began the 70km drive into the capital. After about 30 minutes I got bored so I decided to be a pest "Lachlan are we there yet?" I repeated over and over, Shauno joining in as well. "I fucking swear! If I hear that phrase again I will ram your gun staff up your arse Simon!" Came the murderous reply from Lachlan whom had reached his bullshit limit for probably the rest of his life. So I sat silently, deep in thought as I prepared myself for what was to come.

Upon reaching the motel we were to be staying out I was visibly in awe: A building that must have been at least 100 stories that overlooked a massive park area on one side of the building and a massive shopping mall on another. Lachlan went to the lobby to collect our room keys while the marksmen and I stood by the car silently, I was trying to keep my face hidden from the security cameras dotted around the place _'Ugh being somewhere with so much security can't possibly end well, especially with distinctive marks such as mine.' _I thought to myself. Eventually Lachlan returned and with the keys and an envelope that had been left at reception for us. We were situated on in a four bedroom apartment on the 2nd storey with a perfect, unobstructed view of the park (due to the balcony railings having been removed) ... where a massive stage was being erected on a knoll near the far end of the park. Kale surveyed the room and it's view and nodded knowledgably "50 Lien says that whoever we are here to kill will be on that stage and this will be where the shot is taken from." Shauno nodded in agreement while Lachlan shrugged and opened the envelope to receive our next instructions "Well we will just have to wait until we meet our contact then, Which will be in about an hour at the _'Chancellors Tavern'._ Sorry Simon, sounds like an 18+ establishment so you'll have to wait here while the rest of us attend, guess taking you clubbing will have to wait until next time." Lachlan said, taking just a little pleasure in being able to treat me like a kid because I wasn't legal drinking age.

About 30 minutes later the others left, taking one set of room keys and leaving me with the other. Deciding against going out exploring at the current moment, I flicked on the TV having not watched one for several years. As I flicked through the channels I saw various news reports and current affairs shows featuring reports about the Black Fist. _'Hmm wonder what the people who live in the cities have to say about us heroes of humanity and protectors of the outer colonies.' _I wondered as I eventually chose a news program that was just starting to watch. About 15 minutes later I was left dumbfounded and angry "So these people in the city, who have no knowledge whatsoever on how many humans were murdered in the outer colonies and settlements think we are just as much terrorists as the White Fang? Well legitimately fuck them... it would have been genocide without the Fang protecting those affected by the Faunus uprising those years ago when the White Fang turned Violent!" I screamed in frustration at the TV before changing the channel. Only to be bombarded by more of the same, _'Fuck me dead isn't there any cartoons on?' _I mentally bitched, wanting something to laugh at like an immature little kid. I eventually gave up and settled upon another news program that wasn't talking about The Fist.

_"Good evening and Welcome to Channel 8 News: Violet Scully reporting with tonight's top story. Tomorrow will be the Inaugural 'Faunus Equality and Rights' or FEAR Rally to be held in the Atlesian Botanical Gardens, with Speeches to be headlined by Atlesian Ruling Council member: Councillor Jaeger Meister and the head of 'Faunus for Peaceful Coexistence' Mrs Olivia Taurus..."_

I switched the TV off, my mind had clicked and I knew exactly who we were going to be shooting, and I didn't like it one bit. For now instead of targeting militant Faunus groups we were now targeting groups who were using genuine peace to advance the Faunus race and any humans that agreed with them. _'So this is the new direction that Gregory mentioned... No wonder he got out. Assassinating a Council member is a good way to end up dead' _I thought to myself as I at once made a decision based upon my desire not to end up dead _'That's it I' am OUT of here!' _my survival instincts screamed as I grabbed my bags in preparation to make a quick getaway... Only for the door to unlock and open and one very pissed off Soldier entered leading two very distressed looking snipers who were each carrying large instrument cases that obviously contained sniper rifles.

"Simon we need to talk, we got our mission brief from our contact" Lachlan said. I shook my head "Already know the who, when, why of it" It isn't hard to work it out with the names of two major political players giving speeches on that stage tomorrow plastered all over the TV" I replied with a tone of extreme disapproval to this plan. "These targets are threats to human dominance and therefore are threats to humanity itself!" Lachlan growled in reply. I sighed and looked down to the ground defeated, I would have to make my escape tomorrow in the chaos that will inevitably ensue after this assassination. I simply retreated into my room tossed my bags in the corner, and I began to rearrange my things so that all the stuff I'd need would be in my field pack and anything I could afford to leave behind would be in the bag I had picked up from the Black Fist base this morning.

**The Next Day (The "Sniper Suite")**

We had placed a small coffee table into the middle of the common area to prop the rifles onto and closed the curtains so that they were only cracked enough to give a clear view of the stage that sat less than a 1000m away from our position. I had switched the TV on and tuned it to a channel that was covering the rally live, I wanted to hear the speeches be given If the targets lived long enough to give them. Lachlan agreed to turn it on so he could watch the shots hit their mark on the screen, seeing as Shauno and Kale were the ones making the shots so his and my eyes weren't required to be glued to a scope. "We take the shots the first opportunity that both of the targets are on stage together, Kale takes the Councillor and Shauno takes the Faunus filth. Now remember people once we make the shots, pick up your gear and exit the building, we all separate and will meet up at the agreed upon location in 7 days to extract back to base and lay low." Lachlan said impassively as he gave us our final briefing. From outside a series of chants about peace and equality could be heard both through the open window and the TV screen. I took my place behind the rangefinder set up next to Kale's rifle and Lachlan took his place next to Shauno and then began the waiting game...

The wait didn't take long, before any of the speeches began the organisers brought out all the speech givers for some joint message of peace and acceptance, however I wasn't really listening, I had to assist Kale in setting up his shot. "Target identified, 4th from the left, can I get some shot parameters Simmo?" Kale asked, his voice quivering lightly. I looked through the rangefinder as I heard Kale slide a massive round into the open bolt and ram it home, "Range to target is 977m, no elevation adjustments. Wind is 3 knots going right to left. " I said deadpanned, not allowing my emotions to show. As Kale made the appropriate adjustments to his scope I could hear Lachlan going through the exact same process with Shauno. I turned to Kale who looked pale as a ghost "you have never killed another human before have you? only Grimm and Faunus?" I questioned. Kale whispered his answer "Nope, neither has Shauno.. we had always hoped to avoid doing such things."

I nodded reassuringly to the shooter "I remembered the first time I killed, It wasn't Grimm or Faunus... it was two humans while I was on the street, It ironically was also the same night I met Roman." But Kale was no longer listening having put on his ear protection to avoid hearing damages as both sniper rifles discharged simultaneously. I quickly did the same and gave a thumbs up to Lachlan who gave me one back. I tapped Kale on the shoulder to signify that both shots were set and turned my eyes to the TV screen. Obviously these two had done simultaneous shots before because they seemed to act in unison: they held their breaths and in unison began applying pressure to the triggers until in perfect synchronisation the sniper rifles discharged, sending their deadly payloads hurtling towards their targets. My eyes glued to the TV screen which was currently showing a zoomed out view of all the speech makers lined up, Out of nowhere two clouds of blood and guts spewed out, and both targets collapsed, their abdomens reduced to red mush by the Explosive rounds impacting and their small charges detonating inside their bodies to guarantee death. Within moments without a single spoken word, the four of us had jumped up, grabbed our gear and made our exit and escapes each giving a nod of good luck to each other. The other three going out the doors and I ran forward, right over the balcony and hit the ground running, pack slung over my back Once more into uncertainty.

**Five Days Later **

I was lucky I had brought all the Lien I had made with me instead of throwing it away in disgust, I was moving from motel to motel each night, small cheap, inconspicuous places. Each time i saw a news paper or TV screen it was all plastered with reports and updates into the assassinations. Blame had quickly been shifted onto the Black Fist...Unsurprisingly The Fist High Commander, a once unknown and unseen figure came to the capital and went on TV to vehemently denied the accusations but at the same time praised the "lone wolves" who had perpetrated this act "of service to the species" So obviously the Fist wasn't going to rat myself or any of the others out and all the security recordings from the motel had mysteriously disappeared. But I decided I had enough... I wasn't going to go back and risk being "Disposed of" to tie up loose ends of the assassination, nor was I going to go back and merely kill or ruin the lives of innocent women and kids. The Fist will hopefully just assume me dead. Tonight I began Down a Whole new path. Once more I packed my few belongings and left the cheap motel room I had been occupying near the Atlesian Capital's main train yards. Walking up to a fence I withdrew a set of wire cutters I had bought at a hardware store from my pack and cut away a large section of wire. As I slipped into the yards I saw a train being loaded, a large SDC dust train. _'Well how fucking Ironic... this is the second time I have stowed away on SDC property, I shall have to leave a thank-you note this time.' _I thought to myself as I jumped into a storage car, I noted a passenger car towards the end of the train being boarded by several people as well as armed guards but I knew that snobs such as those that ran the Schnee company would never come up to a storage car, so I was fairly safe. I curled up in a corner of the carriage, curled against my pack. Dozing off deciding to leave the details of what I do next for when I arrive at wherever this train is headed to.

I was jolted from my sleep by an explosion further up the train. "Oh holy fuck!" I yelled as the explosion sent me flying head first in to the dust car's steel wall. Grabbing up _Vindex Umbra _I scrambled out of the car and up to its roof. I saw a Bullhead streaking across the sky and it deposited several pairs of raiders at various lengths of the train. I extended my gun staff into its gun form and slammed a cartridge pouch in, raking the bolt I unleashed a massive stream of tracer fire at the Bullhead. The door gunner turned his attention on me and began returning fire which I blocked with my Aura and simply fired back, absorbing the incoming fire like a walking tank. Eventually I scored several hits on the gunner and he fell out of the Bullhead, but didn't hit the ground due to his safety harness. I ejected the now empty cartridge pouch and swapped to blade mode, looking around I saw two of the raiders jump up onto the roof of my car, aiming rifles at me.

My Aura flared Red-White as I charged into the two raiders, shoulder charging one straight off the car and saw him fly off, his skull hitting a tree as he flew through the air off the train. I turned my attention to the other would be attacker who was now shooting at me to no avail As I simply absorbed the first few rounds with my Aura before I rolled left and charged in, the attacker attempted to slam the stock of his rifle into my face but I blocked it with _Vindex Umbra_ before landing a knee to the man's crotch, as he collapsed to his knees I flourished my staff and stabbed the blade right through his sternum. Withdrawing my weapon I saw the dying attacker remove his helmet... to reveal the face of my former teammate Danny who looked up to me with eyes full of venom and hate "G-g-god damn *Coughs* damn it all Simon, Why did you have to be here... You should be in the capital, and now you have killed Luke and me! Y-you Fucking traitor!" Those were his last words before he slumped over, no longer among the living. I looked down at the corpse with contempt "Yeah right Luke, you guys are the traitors... biting the hand that feeds you and attacking other humans!" I said maliciously to the corpse as I pushed it off the train car. I heard several sets of yelling and gunshots from the passenger car behind me.

I ran for the passenger car, leaping across several storage cars in the process. Upon reaching the entrance which had been blown open, I see inside was Roman, Captain Shevchenko and Sergeant Savage all with their weapons raised and they were yelling for someone to drop their weapon. As I edged forward My weapon ready, I peeked around the corner to get a view of who they were in a standoff with and to my astonishment it was a white clad teenage girl with skin as pale as snow, sporting an off-centre ponytail of silver-white hair who was wielding what looked to be some sort of modified rapier which was glowing red as she held it up to Roman, the carriages other occupants were at the far end.

Deciding to enter the fight I picked up a sharp, heavy piece of what had once been a door and hurled it as hard as I could into the back of Roman's head, leaving a nasty cut on his head and neck, which stained his pimp outfit red. "Oi Roman, Just wanted to say I have wanted to pelt something sharp at your head for years you motherfucker!" I said in a smartass manner as the three raiders turned to face me, their faces lighting up in recognition, then in anger. The white clad girl kept her weapon raised, watching this exchange in confusion. "Oh hello there kid, I see you have decided to be a damned thorn in my side by disrupting my re entry into my preferred profession, no matter... you will be disposed of, Shevchenko has wanted to end you for a long time, so sic him!" two things happened it that moment, Shevchenko and Savage charged me and the white haired warrior charged Roman using some sort of speed enhancing glyphs. Inside the cramped carriage I couldn't use my weapon to its full effectiveness but I was still more than a match for these two clowns. The two Whiskey Squad leaders opened fire on me, instead of absorbing it with my aura I ducked behind some seats, and huddled down as the bullets tore through them. The firing stopped and it became obvious that they had blown away all of their ammunition, I rolled out from behind the seats _Vindex Umbra _raised as I charged at the pair while Roman was fighting the White haired girl in the middle of the carriage.

I ducked under the pairs strikes with their rifles, but instead I caught a pair of savage knees to my face which sent me sprawling onto the ground. I shook my head and decided that using my 2m long staff was not going to work in such confined areas. I jumped up and charged back in unarmed except for my aura and my body. Before reaching the pair who had now drawn knives I kicked off the ground and rebounded off the carriages ceiling, landing a catastrophic blow to Savage's shoulder feeling and hearing several bones shatter from the force. I landed and twirled on my feet, landing a roundhouse kick to the same area on Savage, which had him sprawling in pain as he clutched his now ruined shoulder. Before I could turn around to meet Shevchenko I felt a Knife embed itself in my back, around where my kidneys were and an arm come around my neck, locking me into a choke hold. Shevchenko leaned in close and whispered "Hush Simon, Don't resist the end you have been dealt... just let the blackness consume you" as he twisted the blade before withdrawing it and jabbing it in higher, getting it lodged between my ribs, perforating my lung. I felt blood rush up to my mouth and I coughed it up. Shevchenko once again twisted the lodged knife. In that moment I was infused with a release of adrenaline and my Aura flared up as I turned my head and bit into Shevchenko's face, tearing a massive chunk out of it. The Whiskey Squad captain let me go as he yelled in pain and he clasped his now mutilated face, I spat the chunk of flesh in my mouth right back at Shevchenko before I with much pain, withdrew the knife from my back and flung it towards my opponent, the 8 inch blade going right through Shevchenko's throat. I turned towards the white haired girl and Roman just in time to see the girl flying through the air towards me, I didn't have time to evade, only brace for the impact.

The girl hit me and knocked back several feet, But I managed to keep my footing and actually seemed to catch the girl in my arms bridal style to ensure she didn't hit the ground. Once my backwards movement had stopped I placed the girl down on her feet pushed away from me and stuck her nose up "Would you like another round with this cockbite or do you want me to have a shot at beating him? I ask picking up _Vindex umbra_ and extending its blades. once again. "No I do not need any help taking down this would-be raider when he is attacking my families train! especially not from some foulmouthed stowaway!" She said in a most haughty and pretentious tone before she lunged back into the fight, by firing a trail of ice along the ground at Roman. I on the other hand shrugged and leant against a wall, my weapon at the ready, but secretly grateful she refused my help, I could feel more blood filling up my throat and lungs from the blade that had pierced my chest cavity. I cough up some more blood, only to hear a smash ahead of me, I look up and see the girl sprawled against a wall and Roman preparing for a kill shot. I gritted my teeth to suppress the Pain and lunged into the fray, leading with my shoulder to knock Roman off balance which succeeded then following up with a sweeping strike at his midsection which was blocked by Roman's pimp cane.

Roman and I swapped several blows, Roman being mostly defensive, due to his weapon being of almost no value in melee combat. I pushed my advantage and forced him into a corner and began pounding him with strikes trying to break his defences. Finally I thought I was wearing him down, funnelling most of my rapidly depleting Aura into my strikes to try and finally strike Roman down. But as I went to land the final blow, Roman managed to dodge it and spin around me. First he put an explosive round from his cane into my gun staff at just the right angle, causing it to shatter to pieces. Then he Placed his cane against the back of my Right knee, he pulled the trigger and a shot rang out, shredding my knee cap. I shrieked in pain and collapsed almost instantly into unconsciousness due to a sensory overload.

**That Same Time Weiss Schnee's PoV:**

As I regained my senses I realised I lay sprawled against one of the sides of the carriage, looking up I saw the stowaway engaged in combat with the redheaded Dust Pirate. The stowaway had the pirate pinned against the far side of the carriage and was trying to land a killing blow. I saw the Pirate's move before he made it, his body language all pointed to a dodge to the right, yet the stowaway didn't pick up on it and missed his strike... this fatal lack of perception cost the stowaway dearly as I saw the pirate unleash an explosive round point-blank into the stowaway's right knee which caused almost instantaneous black out for the poor guy. But instead of dealing a final blow the pirate simply blew a hole in the side of the carriage and jumped into a airship that hovered nearby. before departing he had the gall to tip his bowler hat to me like he was some sort of gentleman! I felt the carriage slowing down, Obviously they had detached the last few carriages from the train and made their getaway._ 'Damned thieves, my family got enough trouble from insolent Faunus let alone human raiders.' _I thought to myself as I looked at the carnage before me.

I looked to the now unconscious stowaway whom now lay in an ever expanding pool of his own blood. and I summoned the few remaining security guards whom I had ordered to take cover when that redheaded brigand had attacked our carriage "Keep him alive, he has ended up in this position protecting the Schnee Dust Company, therefore we are obligated by our honour to keep him alive and see that he recovers. And will someone please signal for a pick up, before something else attacks us!" I said in a commanding, Schnee like tone. I spared one last look to the Stowaway and mentally pleaded for him to live, for I well and truly did owe him my life and a Schnee always repays their debts.

**A/N: **Only about 3-4 more chapters until Simon heads to Beacon (but will he be in fighting shape having just had both his weapon and knee destroyed?!), and I fully intend to have chapter one of the sequel out by the beginning of November. Also... I honestly could not resist the GoT reference at the end, was impossible not to use it haha :P

Read and Review people... your feedback and questions always help motivate me and I love answering the questions that people send my way about my story. -CC signing off


	15. A Whole New Job

**A/N: **Just a quick announcement: Over the coming months in collaboration with Blue Hurricane. Hurricane and I will be putting together an AU-crossover focused upon my OC _Simon Alexander _and Hurricane's OC _Sapphire Fall _from their fic "Children and Soldiers". So watch this space for updates on when we will be releasing that.

Also I will be experimenting with a new writing style that will hopefully shorten my paragraphs significantly due to the comments I have received on them... I'd like to hear feedback on which style my readers prefer, but I hope you all find this easier to follow and read. -CC

Chapter 15: A whole New Job. (Set 6 weeks after chapter 14, Approx 16 months before the events of RWBY Vol 1, ep1) Simon's PoV:

I slowly awoke, at first I couldn't open my eyes due to the bright lights and horrible headache I was suffering. I tried to get up only to be gently yet firmly pushed back down "now now don't go trying to move just yet... your body has sustained a lot of trauma and has been in a medically induced coma for 6 weeks" came a calm, yet slightly caring voice.

I slowly once more opened my eyes, allowing them to acclimatise to the light in the room. Looking around I saw I was in a large, isolated hospital room and that I had several drips and IV tubes attached to my body. I looked back to the doctor and the nurse who had pushed me back down onto my bed when I had tried to move "What happened to me?" I asked, not entirely remembering how I'd come to end up needing to be hospitalised.

"Well we don't know the specifics of how you came to be this way, Miss Schnee was not forthcoming with those details. However I can tell you that you have had lost your right kidney, had a punctured lung, a severe concussion, an assortment of cuts and gashes... but the cake goes to your right leg: your aura stopped the round tearing through your leg and severing it, however the concussion from the blast has destroyed the internal structure of your knee, facilitating us having to use an experimental semi-organic knee replacement" The Doctor replied as the Nurse injected me with what I assumed was a pain killer. Upon hearing this news I suddenly remembered the fight with Roman, _'why am I still alive? he had all the opportunity to land a kill blow!' _ My mind started racing, trying to work out I was even alive, reaching a chilling conclusion "Doctor, where Is the white haired girl with the glowing rapier? Is she ok?!" I asked frantically, hoping my conclusion that she had fought Roman and lost worse than I had was wrong. The nurse and doctor both motioned me to calm down as instruments began beeping. "Miss Schnee is perfectly fine other than some superficial damage." The doctor said in that clinically unemotional yet caring tone I remembered my father using with patients.

Having had that worry settled, I moved onto the next issue I had "Ok doc... what did you say about my kidney? Did that asshole Shevchenko's blade destroy it? Also what is this about my knee being replaced?" The doctor nodded "Yes your kidney suffered irreparable damage due to a sharp blade. But however it turns out that the other fellow that was brought in was a good donor match for you, so we helped ourselves to a kidney and transplanted it into you, so you should feel no ill effects of lacking a kidney." The doctor said before flipping through his notes before eventually looking back to me "The knee replacement has replaced your right knee joint with a semi-organic, semi-steel structure designed by Atlesian Arms. That is resistant to the concussion traumas that your knee sustained, however it will take a lot of time and training until you will be combat ready, even then you may need to change your combat style to fit the limitations of your new knee." I nodded in reply, sighing defeated as I knew my days as a kick flipping acrobatic fighter were numbered, but I was determined not to allow this to permanently sideline me from combat.

The doors to the hospital opened and ushered in by an orderly was the white-haired warrior, with her was a much larger and older man who shared that same white hair. "Mr Schnee, we weren't expecting you so soon, We have not had the chance to run any tests on him yet sorry." The doctor said, cowering slightly from the imposing man. which I found to be rather unprofessional of him, my father was not intimidated by anyone... and it got him killed in the end. I felt a pang of hurt once again over my lost parents, a hurt I haven't felt in a long time, but I pushed it from my mind for later processing. The large man, whom I assumed was the Schnee patriarch simply waved away the doctor "Leave us, I have much to discuss with the young man." He boomed imposingly, causing the doctors to wince and leave. I steeled myself for an interrogation, and also inching towards the tray of medical utensils a nurse had left behind, which included a scalpel... just in case things turned violent. It seems the girl notices my subtle movements and proceeds to move the tray out of my reach. "Now young man... the question begs to be asked, who exactly did I have my personal physicians put back together at my daughter's insistence? your ID says _Sinopia Paulson_ but I think we both know that it is a fake set. And what was this currently nameless young man doing stowing away on my companies dust train?"

I decided to play coy "What makes you think I' am not really Sinopia Paulsen? Also how do you know I was stowaway... I could have been hunting the raiders?" I said trying to illicit a reward for hunting them rather than a punishment for stowing away. In return for my lies I got death glares from both Schnees and a low growl from the man. "Please don't take me for an idiot and do not ever patronise me!" The man boomed angrily enough to make me flinch. He then pressed something on his scroll and in came the orderly carrying my field pack which I had I had taken onto the train and dropped it by my bed "The fact that it was found in one of the storage cars on the train and matches your finger prints proves you were stowing away... as does the 150,000 Lien in there. So do not bother lying to me!" The male Schnee commanded, once again causing me and the young female Schnee to flinch.

I sighed in defeat, my energy and will to resist completely drained from my injuries and time in coma. "Ok, Ok... my real name Is Simon... Simon Alexander. And I was on that train as a deserter of the Black Fist militias. The same militia that attacked the train... for reasons I not yet know." I said holding my hands up in surrender to the imposing Schnee. The man seemed to process this information and his expression became less aggressive "Well, if you know this militia so well, then you should be able to tell me where they are hiding... So I can have them dealt with, If you do that I'll see you well compensated both monetary and otherwise." I smirked _'Maybe if I can't get Roman back for my knee... I can get the Schnee's to do it for me'_ I thought eagerly as I read off the coordinates of out former base. "Oh one more thing, I don't expect them to be there... I have been out for 6 weeks and no doubt they have moved." I added onto the end of the coordinates. The male Schnee smiled simply "I expect not, however I have confidence in my SSB. You have been of much more help than the other one that we found on the train." he replied as he turned to leave .

My brain clicked at the second mention of another survivor _'It has to be Savage, I merely incapacitated him,... not killed him'_ I sat up in my bed "Oi, I have questions of my own... what do you mean another one? Where is he mate?!" I barked demandingly at the man, my strength and resistance to authority returning in leaps and bounds. The man stopped in his tracks and turned to , obviously not used to having demands made of him. I saw the girl signalling for me to shut up and not speak again, her face painted with fear, and a hint of worry. "How DARE you speak to me like that! One word from me and You would disappear, never to be seen again!" He yelled menacingly, his eyes boring into mine. But I didn't allow myself to flinch "The last person who threatened to kill me is dead, by my hands... I have a habit of surviving." I shot back in a smartass tone.

The pair of us continued to stare each other down until the older man smirked and his expression once again softened "Yes, Yes... Absolutely no fear. Impossibly determined and stubborn, yet has the ability to back it up when it gets him into trouble, You will do perfectly" he said in a impassive, business like tone before continuing on "I shall answer your questions at a time of my choosing and not before... Everything is done my way, no other way. Always remember that." He finished in a warning tone before once again turning away and walking out the door. I looked to the Schnee girl from the train and we exchanged a thoroughly confused look at what had just transpired. "Weiss! We are leaving." I heard the still unnamed man call from outside. "Coming Father " Weiss replied meekly, leaving the room with her nose pointed up in a haughty fashion, without bidding me so much as a farewell or even acknowledging my presence. I lay back in my bed, wondering exactly what new bullshit awaited me outside this hospital. _'Weiss Schnee... a fitting name for someone with such white hair and such a cold heart'_ I thought to myself with a chuckle before I laid back down to rest.

**Four Weeks Later:**

I groaned in frustration as I held myself at the end of the walk way flanked by horizontal bars for handholds. It was my first major physical workout without the use of a wheelchair or crutches in 10 weeks, and in that 10 weeks I had lost a lot of condition as well as the ability to walk properly due to the knee replacement, all of this I would need to relearn and regain over time. I began to edge myself forward, using the handholds to keep my balance _'Come on Simon, get your lazy fucking ass into gear and walk!'_ I mentally berated my inability to even walk 5 meters. I forced myself to move forward inch by inch, but I placed my foot awkwardly and my knee buckled causing me to yelp in pain as the nurse stepped in to support me and keep me from falling."It is ok Simon, no one ever gets back on their feet first time round" The nurse said supporting me. I grunted and pushed myself up, not wanting to let this beat me, taking another attempt I got about 5 steps before once again collapsing, my unused leg muscles already exhausted.

The nurse was about help me up and assist me to get to the end of the walkway where my crutches awaited when the doors of the physio wing swung open, In strode Mr Schnee flanked by two men whom I recognised as belonging to the SSB due to their uniform. "Leave us Nurse, I have business to discuss with Mr Alexander" He said intimidatingly, his angry expression striking fear into the nurse as she bowed and exited the room, leaving me grasping to the handrails of the walkway trying to look as tough and imposing as possible, despite being slightly fearful in my head when I noticed that the SSB agents were armed. The imposing Schnee stared me down for a moment, sizing me up before continuing "As I have said, I have business to discuss, seeing as you are well known by my SSB for your work as a labour procurer for the SDC dust quarries" I cringe inwardly at such neutral language being used to describe slavery, pushing that thought from my mind I continued listening. "We were as you predicted, unable to find any sign of the rogues at the location you provided, and the other survivor has been less than forthcoming with information on where they would go next, My subordinates in the SSB were wondering if you would be willing to attempt to illicit the information we seek from the prisoner?" Mr Schnee said in a tone that I knew meant that this was not a request... it was an order, a test. But for what? I mentally asked myself.

But before I could answer that to myself I realised I was already nodding in agreement to whatever this was. "Good, Now get changed... where we are going is no place for a hospital gown." one of the SSB agents said as he chucked a SSB uniform next my crutches and he walked out of the room to wait for me. _'Oh shit... what in the world of Remnant have I just walked into?'_ I asked mentally as I hopped over to my crutches, avoiding use of my damaged right leg. and changed into the admiralty gray uniform, complete with SDC and SSB patches on the shoulders. Upon joining the trio outside the physio room, to find a wheelchair waiting for me, seems they didn't want to slowdown for me to be able to use my crutches. Leaving the hospital there was a motorcade of two armoured and armed 4-wheel-drives and a limo , Mr Schnee, entered the limo while the SSB agents and myself entered the rear 4-wheel-drive, I felt my muscles relax into the luxury seats, much comfier than anything we had in the fist.

I sat in awkward silence as the motorcade sped down the roads, looking out the Window I could see by the terrain that this was somewhere in the Atlesian Tundra just south of the alps. I looked to the other occupants of the vehicle and felt my strength slightly fail me _'Don't do anything stupid... no one's going to help you if you fuck up here'_ My mind reminded me as I heard a cough from one of the SSB agents got my attention and I noticed that they must have been addressing me and I was zoned out. "Oh um, yes. Sorry... this is all kind of new and disorientating to me" I replied meekly, hiding my eyes. I heard amused chuckles from the SSB agents. "So the fearless Simon Alexander has finally learnt to fear, and it he didn't even have a weapon drawn on him and Kale spoke so highly of you." The Agent who sat next to me said chuckling amusedly. I shot him a death glare "You're lucky I don't have _Vindex Umbra _with me or you wouldn't be laughing!" I warned the agent. The agent chuckled and brought up a photo on his scroll "You mean your weapon? yeah I don't think that will be harming anyone anytime soon!" He said handing me the scroll, showing a photo of my destroyed weapon laid out on a table. I felt hurt and lost with the knowledge of the destruction of my closest companion, I held back a tear and eventually sighed "well that is another addition to the list of reasons I want to kill Roman" I said flatly, handing back the scroll.

The agent smirked "Don't worry, we handed it over to the boffins in the SDC weapons labs, they might be able to either rebuild it or build a new one with some improvements... can't let the latest SSB recruits going about their duties without the latest weapons" The agent replied with a sarcastic, yet informing tone. _'So I have just signed my life away to service with the SSB... jeez this is like the opposite of Shauno and Kale'_ I thought to myself fully realising exactly what Mr Schnee was talking about when he said I'd 'do perfectly'... but for what exactly I wondered with my leg still recovering. I pondered this in silence for the rest of the trip until eventually I noticed everything go dark, I quickly realised we had gone underground while I had been zoned out. The motorcade stopped and the area lit up, I saw an underground checkpoint and several armed SSB guards approached and opened the door. I clambered out and followed the SSB agents while hobbling on my crutches.

I was led inside this facility that I assumed was a SDC labour camp for its Dust quarries or one of its other mines for various metals. Being led through various corridors I and the SSB agents eventually stopped at a dead end hallway with a single door at the end It was then that I noticed that Mr Schnee was not with us. "Your old friend is in there, do anything you think needed to get what we want... information on where his band of cockbites would hide." The lead SSB agent said he opened the door and I hobbled inside, to find two masked men standing by the wall an in the centre under blinding lights was none other than Ryan Savage... looking very worse for wear. I pulled up a seat and silently stared at Ryan until his head lolled over lazily to face me "S-Simon, you fuck... you did this to me" He said half consciously. I on the other hand simply sat there and stared, unmoving. Ryan quickly got very agitated at this "Oi I' am speaking to you Simon you piece of shit! Why are you here? To gloat that you finally got one over one me! pathetic, you always were!"

I smirked "Oh no Ryan, I' am here to thank you... for you see without me I'd be without a kidney thanks to your friend Shevchenko, but with your gracious donation, I' am going to be fighting fit in no time" I said lifting up my shirt to reveal the scar from the transplant operation. Upon seeing this Ryan went into a frenzy "You Fucking butchers! Give me my damned kidney back you cocksucking fucktards!" He screamed at the two Schnee guards who stood by the door. I laughed right at Ryan's face continuing to show the scar at him "Well you can't have it back... however what you can have is your life if you answer a few simple questions, reckon you can do that? Because I spent a lot of time with Lachlan after the Dex interrogations, learning exactly how he broke the Faunus, learnt quite a lot from him... which I'll gladly show you if you decide you want to put up your tough guy act." I said tauntingly, actually hoping he would resist.

Ryan looked savagely at me "Screw you if you think I' am going to say anything you organ stealing cripple!" came his defiant reply. I simply shrugged and picked up a note pad, scrawling out a list I handed it off to the guards who nodded and went to retrieve what I wanted. Turning back to savage I smiled and chuckled sinisterly "You have until they return to give me the answers I seek, or I start putting Lachlan's lessons into practice, and trust me... you won't enjoy it, though I might." I said evenly leaning back into my chair to wait. 20 minutes later and the guards returned with a covered tray, no surprise Ryan had not said a word. "Ok Ryan you asked for It... let's do some experimenting. If you want it to stop at anytime, just give me the answers I want." I said as I uncovered the tray to reveal a syringe and a bottle of liquid mercury. Showing Ryan what I had asked to be brought in as the guards began to slowly fill the syringe with the toxic liquid. "You know Ryan, this won't kill you, at least not very quickly... just destroy your liver, brain... your one remaining kidney, your mind will remain sound but your body will slowly rot away from the outside in." I said slowly and clinically all the while watching Ryan squirm and begin to sweat. I sat there as the guards advanced upon Ryan, his eyes looking they were going to pop right out of his skull. "Ok Ok, I'll talk... just keep that bloody syringe away from me!" came the frantic call from Ryan whose nerves had failed him. _'Thank-you Lachlan for teaching me that fear of pain is a more effective tool than pain itself'_ I thought to myself as i signalled for the guards to hold the syringe mere inches from Ryan's neck.

"Do please go on Ryan, we are all eager to hear what you have to say" I said impassively. Ryan nodded and frantically ran off some story about how a few hours we left for the assassination mission some woman with glowing clothes and raven black hair arrived at the camp and had asked Roman to steal some SDC dust shipments and to kidnap one of the Schnee girls. Upon hearing the attempt to kidnap one of their leaders the guard became incensed and moved to inject the syringe only for me to command him to stop. "Ryan, how many Lien was Roman paid to do this? because he is now rogue, hunted by SDC, the Atlesian Authorities and I' am sure the Black Fist won't take lightly to this treachery!" Ryan hesitated slightly "Well there was ALOT of Lien, more than we could count." I nodded to the guards and signalled for them to back off. "I always knew Roman would be enticed by money to bring his services elsewhere, I just never thought he would be stupid enough to make himself the SDC's biggest target after the White Fang" I said to no one in particular before turning back to Ryan "Thank-you for being so forthcoming with the information, I knew you just needed a little encouragement. I know leave you in the tender loving care of these guards who you pissed off by admitting you wanted to harm their heiress" I said in fake cheer as I stood up and began hobbling on my crutches out of the room, not wanting to see what came next for the now surely doomed Ryan.

As I exited the room I saw the two SSB agents already waiting for me, grim expressions upon their faces "A kidnap attempt on one of the Schnee girls? That is very serious... this will require the most urgent and merciless retaliation, The Schnee Dust Company thanks you for this service rendered, you will receive just rewards for your effort. You will be returned to the hospital and allowed to finish your rehab in peace, but you will see us again. Donning that uniform came with obligations" The agent said as I began the long hobble back to where the cars would be waiting. On the trip back my mind returned to wondering exactly what lay in store for me, hopefully not more 'Labour procurement' as SDC seemed to call its slavery operations. It was dark by the time I was returned to the hospital and in the absence of the intimidating Mr Schnee, the hospital matron unleashed a massive tirade upon the SSB agents for stealing her patients and intimidating her nurses... the SSB agents looked genuinely scared at this scorned woman, and I was thankful that I was not on the receiving end of that scolding as I returned to my hospital room ,thoroughly exhausted both mentally and physically and I was asleep before I hit the pillows.

**4 Months Later (1 year before RWBY Vol1 Ep1) Simon's PoV:**

It was evening and I was just returning to my hospital room after a full day of physio, swimming, boxing and some light jogging. It had been a big 2 months since I was able to walk a full day without my crutches during which I had regained all of the physical conditioning that I had lost during my early time in hospital after my injuries and I had been informed that tomorrow I was to be discharged from the hospitals care. As I slumped onto my bed I removed the metallic brace that supported my still recovering and weakened knee at all times except when I was in the pool. But before I could lay down to rest the door to my room opened up and in strode the SSB agents from four months ago "Well so much for thinking you had forgotten about me and I'd be able to slip away into obscurity" I said in a smartarsed tone. The Agents merely grunted "Pack your things, you are discharged immediately... there has been a development and Mr Schnee has an assignment for you Agent". The smartass mood I had instantly disappeared "Oh bullshit, Is this more torture?" I said, not exactly wanting to have to do something so malevolent again. The Agent simply tossed my old field pack and instructed me to change into the SSB uniform that I hadn't touched in 4 months before walking outside to wait. I looked into my pack, noticing that all the Lien that I had to stashed was still there _'Well that is at least one piece of good news... now if only I could avoid whatever bullshit the SSB want me to get involved in' _I thought to myself as I slipped into the SSB uniform and replaced my knee brace before rolling the pant leg over it before shouldering my pack and walking out the door to meet the SSB agents.

Once again I found myself in the backseat of a armoured 4 wheel drive with no idea where I was being taken to somewhere I did not know _'I really need to start taking control of my Life, I always seem t end up in the most fucked up situations when I let people just talk me into or tell me what to do' _I reminisced upon all the times I followed orders since losing my parents. I was jolted from my thoughts by the car coming to a halt at a guarded checkpoint, beyond it was a large castle, with armed guards swarming all over the place _'What in the fuck happened here?' _I thought as I saw vicious dogs, and large groups of troops all over the grounds. The car pulled up to the entrance of the castle and I was ushered in alongside the SSB agents, but not before noticing a whole lot of bullet holes and blood _'Wow, someone was stupid enough to hit the Schnees where they lived?' _I thought as we were led inside and to an antechamber where the Schnee family was situated surrounded by guards and attended to by several physicians.

As I walked up, keeping close to the SSB agents so as not to look out of place I noticed Weiss with a major cut on her face getting it cleaned and stitched, but other than that the Schnee family looked unhurt. Mr Schnee looked up and noticed me and the other agents and nodded acknowledgment at our presence and beckoned us closer . "Good, glad to see that you are in fighting shape again Simon, and at the exact right time to. For as you can probably tell, a reformed White Fang has launched the first strike in a new war against my company and Atlesian Arms. I got lax in my families security, My daughter was harmed, That is an assault I can't let go unpunished... but that isn't where you come in Simon, you instead now have the task of ensuring my Weiss' safety" He said motioning to his injured daughter. Both me and her stopped and stared at Mr Schnee incredulously "But dad, I can more than look after myself... I don't need some cripple chaperon to babysit me!" Came the cry of indignation from the teenage girl, I on the other hand remained silent, but a similar look of disapproval written across my face. "My decision is final Weiss, you will not disobey me on this. I will not take any risks when it comes to your safety!" Mr Schnee boomed before turning to me, now ignoring his daughter's arguments "Take the young man to the guard quarters and see him issued with a rifle and pistol until such a time that the weapons lab completes his new weapon." With that I was dismissed.

Upon reaching a small building adjacent to the rear of the castle I was handed the key to a room and shown inside and handed several pieces of armaments and their associated kit. "Get a good night sleep, Your briefings begin at 0415 tomorrow" The agent said before leaving me to my own devices. Upon making sure that no one was in earshot I punched the nearest wall "A good damned babysitter? That's just fucking perfect... how degrading!" I raged at my injured pride, however another part of my head said I should be thankful for a cushy, easy job. I simply sighed and accepted what fate had dealt me, Looking at the time and seeing the clock just striking 10pm I decided to get to sleep now, seeing as I'd probably have to be awake by 0345 to make it to my briefing, which I didn't know where in fuck that was meant to take place! _'Ugh I'll wing it tomorrow... really need to sleep, don't want to be a grouchy shit for my first day babysitting the Ice Queen'_ I thought to myself as I tossed my bag and kit into a corner and laid down to sleep.

**A/N: **Hope you all enjoy this chapter, things are really starting to be set in motion for Simon heading to Beacon... If you have any suggestions on how to better write Weiss or her Father please feel free to either leave your advice in a review or PM :) -CC Signing off.


	16. A Whole New Life

**A/N: **CC here, a very large chapter today due to it essentially being three chapters in 1... I decided to compress the story again and the next chapter shall be the concluding chapter in "From Hunted to Hunter" I will be releasing the first chapter of the Sequel immediately after the next chapter under the title of "Between The Fist and a Hard Place" so as not to make my awesome readers wait before seeing Simon FINALLY get to Beacon :P

Also in other news: The first chapter of the AU collaboration between Blue Hurricane and myself has been published on Blue Hurricane's page under the title "Mercenaries and Insurgents". Please check it out my peeps. :)

**Chapter 16: A Whole New Life: Simon's PoV**

_"BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP" _I awoke with a start and looked at my alarm clock with a glare so fierce that I thought it was going to explode... I hoped it would explode is more like it. I had become way to accustomed to the sleep ins I had while in hospital, dragging myself up and turning off the alarm with a stretch and an annoyed moan I looked at the time _0346 _"Ugh, If I need to be doing this every day, I think I' am going to stab someone" I bitched as I got up and hobbled to the shower, hoping some scolding hot water would wake me up enough to function until I got some coffee _'If this briefing doesn't have coffee I' am going to kill something' _I mentally growled as I turned the taps. Unfortunately the shower had not help and my desire for coffee only intensified as i fixed my knee brace in place and pulled on the SSB uniform from last night seeing as I came to the conclusion that my Black Fist uniforms weren't really appropriate wear here. Before I walked out my door I holstered my pistol to my left hip and slung my rifle over my chest for ease of access in case it was needed _'Only complacent idiots sling their rifles over their backs' _I thought to myself as I exited my room to try and find where this briefing was in the 10 minutes I had before it began.

Turns out I didn't have to look more than three minutes. central to the guards barracks where I was bunked was a kitchen area that seemed to double over as the briefing area _'a hot meal and coffee? well I can never say these people aren't stupid enough to deprive me of my coffee at 4am' _I thought happily as I entered the building and crabbed a large cup of coffee with just a hint of caramel in it and a plate of bacon and eggs _'Ok waking up this early may be worth it if this is what we are fed each morning' _I happily mused, my mood slightly improving as I sat down to eat. It took me all of 15 seconds to realise I was being watched by just about every other guard in the room, no doubt sizing me up and silently judging me. I simply ignored them as I downed what could only be described as the sweet nectar of the gods while listening into the various conversations going on around the room. Apart from the odd comment about "The new guy" the conversation here centred upon normal things like the latest ARL (Atlesian Rugby League) scores and how everyone's favourite teams and players were going or politics or various guards partners and families. If it wasn't for the fact we were all heavily armed and most were wearing combat armour, one could be forgiven for thinking this just the average meal room at an average normal job. _'Normal heh... now that's something I haven't experienced for a long time, guess I could enjoy this after all.'_

I had just finished my plate of food and gotten a 2nd cup of coffee when a loud whistle sounded throughout the room "Ok you shits, on your feet... things will be changing big time around here after the monumental fuckup in security last night!" came a booming woman's voice as this big, stocky, middle aged woman stood near the doorway. All the conversation stopped and all the guards stood, their heads bowed towards the ground, making it obvious that all the happy sounding conversations were merely the guards trying to keep their minds off their failures and fallen friends. _'And we're back to being screamed at... so much for a slice of Normality' _ I thought a bit disappointedly as I focused back in on the screaming coming from the woman who was obviously the guard commander. "We got complacent, lazy and cocky! We let out guard slip... one of our charges was wounded and 17 guards and castle staff were killed and another 30 wounded. This is unacceptable! From now on we will be the model of vigilance and actually earn the privilege to be the guardians of White Castle rather than guarding some dust mine in the middle of nowhere." The guard commander spoke, her voice seething with anger.

"The SSB will get the White Fang back for this assault on the Schnee family, but we must play our part and ensure that it doesn't happen again. Which is why the guard will be doubled and roving patrols around the castle grounds will be reintroduced. Your watch commanders have got the new watch and patrol schedules, report to them to receive your instructions. Those who have been assigned to close in protection details for Weiss and Winter will come with me to receive their individual briefings. Ok people... time to fix our mistakes and ensure another Schnee is never injured under our protection!" She commanded and all the guards snapped to and saluted their commander. I saw that the guards all stood and moved around to different tables, no doubt into their organised watches. I simply stood and made my way towards the guard commander, I saw a girl in SSB uniform also making their way towards the commander _'Guess she is the close in protection for the other daughter... Winter' _I thought as I stood in front of the guard commander.

Once the other guard was standing next to me the commander sized us up "First things first, I' am Commander Angeline Magenta: Commander of the White Castle Guard. You two if my briefing is correct are Simon Alexander and Amber Flame?" The girl and I both nodded. "Ok good. Amber: You will not be staying here, as Winter will be moved to another one of the Schnee families estates closer to SDC headquarters, so pack your things... Winter's airship leaves at 0545, The Guard Commander there will give you your briefing upon your arrival there. Simon you come with me, I think we have much to discuss." Magenta said coolly as she strode out of the eating area and I followed.

As we reached Commander Magenta's office in the Guard admin building she sat down and opened a SSB file and began to read it off "Simon Alexander: Orphaned age 12 due to White Fang attack, then recruited into the Black Fist terror group, being assigned to Roman Torchwick A known criminal at age 14. Took part in many "Labour Procurement" missions for the SSB with former SSB marksmen Kale Smyth and Shaun Morgan who were also with Roman." Magenta stared me down angrily before continuing "The SSB cites: Sociopathic tendencies, an inability to deal with loss and hurt in non-violent ways. An insatiable desire to kill anyone who has caused him harm or offence, a complete disregard for life and dignity as shown through the torture and execution of several individuals and a general detachment from reality... so in other words, the ideal candidate for their direct action wing!" By this time Commander Magenta's face had turned magenta. "If it had been anyone but Mr Schnee himself who assigned you this mission I'd toss you out right now... I do not want blood crazed psychos on my guard! I'd have sent you back to whichever hell hole the SSB had originally planned to send you! But unfortunately Mr Schnee's word is final so I have no choice in the matter... but know this: I will be watching you and if I feel your fragile mental state poses any threat to the heiress and I will shoot you myself." The Commander said bluntly. I simply looked at her blankly and nodded _'Fuck... can for once get a boss who doesn't hate my fucking guts! This is worse than dealing with Roman!' _I mentally scowled.

"That being said, I will also ensure you are well trained and well equipped. I won't allow my personal opinions inhibit at all the protection of the Heiress which is why I ensured the Weapons lab was making good progress on your new weapons set, which should be ready within two weeks. On a normal day Weiss Codenamed "Snowflake" will arise at 0530, however today I think she will be sleeping in due to the experience of last night... which works for us, you will need to get a Castle watch uniform... I strictly forbid SSB uniforms to be worn here... too many negative connotations go with the SSB due to their less humane activities." Magenta said pointing to the grey SSB uniform I wore compared to the gold trimmed Silver armour she wore, similar to Atlesian soldiers. I simply shrugged, not really caring at this point, except the good news about my weapons _'maybe they fixed Vindex Umbra' _I thought hopeful of getting my gun staff back. "Go down the hall to the quartermaster's office... he will see to it you're issued with the appropriate armour. Dismissed Guardsman." Magenta said shooing me out of the door.

As I exited the office I sighed _'So much for some sense of normality... If the commander is that much of a bitch, I fear to think of what Weiss is going to be like, Especially after the way she was last night'_ I shook that thought from my head and checked the time _0445 _and made my way to the quartermaster's office... what followed was an hour of being fitted for a set of armour and several sets of Castle guard uniforms to wear underneath the White trimmed armour as well as several other bits of kit. Before I left the Quartermasters office I was asked if I had any questions.. "Only one QM: What is the Commander's hatred of the SSB for? thought the guard was part of the SSB?" I asked curiously. The QM lost his smile "She dislikes their methods and only just recently managed to have the castle watch separated from the SSB in order to improve the guard's public image by removing the bloodstains of the SSB's activities." The QM replied before showing me out "You better get that back to your room and make your way to the Heiress's quarters, she will be beyond grumpy if you're late... even more so than just having you there if her reaction from last night is anything to from" were his last words before closing his office door.

After a quick stop by my room to stow away my spare uniforms and change into my new guard uniform I made my way into the castle _'Well fuck, where do I go from here?' _I questioned myself suddenly realising no one had actually given me directions to the heiress' quarters, As I aimlessly wandered about I eventually came across a member of the kitchen staff who had a tray of food "Oh you must be the Heiress' new body guard... here come with me I'll show you where to go." The staffer said cheerfully and I simply nodded, happy that I wasn't going to get lost in this bloody castle. We eventually arrived at the heiress bedroom door and the staffer entered to take the food in, while I simply stood outside, rifle hanging loosely in my hands. After a couple moments the staffer exited the room and gave me a cheerful smile before walking off.

For approx two hours I stood outside the door, occasionally walking up and down the hall to stop my legs cramping too badly, until eventually at approx. _0830_ the door to the bedroom clicked open and out walked Weiss fully dressed, rapier at her side and from my estimation 27 stitches down the left side of her face from her attack last night. "Good morning Ma'am" I said in a happy tone, edged with just a hint of mocking condescendence for my own amusement. Weiss looked momentarily startled at the unfamiliar guard standing before her, so to jog her memory I removed my helmet and clipped it to my belt, revealing the dual scars over my right eye. It took her a moment to fully realise who I was, but when she did I got a mean scowl for my troubles "Just because my father thinks I need protecting doesn't mean I' am going to appreciate your presence here. Especially since _Myrtenaster_ here is much more useful at protecting me than those peashooters you're carrying" Weiss said mockingly as she compared her rapier to my weapons. I merely nodded "That is true Ma'am, however my carrying these _Peashooters_ is only temporary until my replacement weapons set is completed by the SDC weapons lab, then we shall see who is better." I said sarcastically, deciding to see how long it takes to get impaled on the rapier. Weiss turned on her heel and glared up at me looking like she was about to bust a stitch on her face from the scowl she wore "When you get your new weapons, challenge accepted. I will show you how to fight! Now keep quiet and allow me some peace!" She commanded as she once again spun around and walked down the stairs, me following grinning like a Cheshire cat.

The majority of the morning was taken up by Weiss attending private tutorials on various subjects with her tutors during which I stood in a corner and listened into the topics covered ranging from politics and business to various types of Grimm, I had to admit they were interesting for the most part. however once the classes were finished the tutor handed Weiss a large book that was to be her reading, Weiss turned to me and dumped it in my hands "Thank-you guard, now please take that to my room and place it on my desk open to the pages the tutor specified" The little bitch said in the most condescendingly innocent voice imaginable. I merely grunted and turned on my heels to leave and do as the heiress instructed before anything else could be sent my way. After lunch, Weiss proceeded into a large training complex to practice her rapier techniques. I on the other hand discovered a gym and firing range adjacent to the training area, so I decided to blow off a few rounds to relieve my boredom.

Taking my place in a booth I raised my rifle aiming down range I emptied the magazine in one long burst of fire all the while maniacally laughing as the target downrange all but disintegrated from the dust enhanced rounds, immediately ejecting the spent magazine and ramming the next in repeating this process for about 4 full magazines before I heard some chuckles from behind me. Turning I saw several other guardsmen chuckling at me, I removed my helmet so I could stare them down with my cold Blue-Grey eyes. "Something funny mates?" I growled. At this the group laughed even more "You haven't even finished your first day and you're already on your last frazzled nerve, within a week you're going to be a raging alcoholic... or blowing through 1000's of rounds of ammo each day just to keep sane from being around madam Ice Queen so much" came the humoured reply from the guardsmen as they walked off towards the gym. I shook my head and turned back towards the new target and continued my shoot, this time squeezing off well aimed bursts rather than just letting fly. Eventually growing bored of wasting ammo on non-living targets I decided to go and watch Weiss practice with her weapon, some recon seeing as I had challenged her to a fight.

re-entering the training area I leaned in a shadowy corner so as not to alert the heiress to my presence. I watched her gracefully dispatch several Atlesian Knights that had been outfitted as training bots using a combination of different kinds of dust and some sort of glyphs that I had never seen used before. I noted how light on her feet and agile she was and how quickly she could strike with her rapier But I also noticed she only took on one target at a time, Weiss seemed weak at taking on multiple opponents at once, as was demonstrated when she coped several hits from the Knights she wasn't focused upon. But each time she was knocked around she got straight back up and leaped straight back in _'She is determined I'll give her that' _I thought as I watched her eventually cut down the mechs one by one finishing with a fancy flourish of her rapier that kind of reminded me of how I used to get fancy with my handling of _Vindex Umbra._ I began giving her a slow clap as I walked out of the shadows "Well done heiress, you dispensed those mechs with ease. But just remember... I' am not a dumb mech" I said in the most smartass tone I could think of, _'Damn Kale and Shauno really did rub off on me' _I thought as I saw Weiss turn scarlet. "Why you condescending scar faced, limping... UGH!" she was that mad at having her abilities challenged, she couldn't even respond to me with a full sentence. I smirked inwardly as I held my hands up in mock surrender "Did not mean to cause offence, was merely pointing out I' am not mechanical. Also just remember those stitches in your face... you're one to talk when it comes to being a _Scarface_." I said in mock apology as I allowed the heiress to walk out of the room, me following, my eyes scanning for any possible dangers.

After having left Weiss as she re-entered the castle I returned to the guards barracks. Finally having some spare time I began sorting through my things, placing my uniforms onto hangers and into my closet. My stash of Lien a lockable drawer by my bed. As I cleared my bag I noticed my scroll sitting in its compartment _'Damn I haven't touched this in month... wonder if Kale or Shauno left me any messages letting me know where they are because I know for a certainty they wouldn't go back... they would probably lose their shit if they find out I' am here.' _I thought as I plugged the charger and started up the scroll. What I found were literally hundreds of messages from Both Kruger and Sanderson... all along the lines of 'Pick up you fucking prick and let us know you're still alive!' The last one from Kruger... only 3 hours ago. _'Shit... I only just remembered I technically am a deserter of the Black Fist, no wonder Kruger is losing his shit' _I thought as I dialled his frequency, getting an almost instant answer.

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT SIMON! WHERE IN REMNANT ARE YOU... DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED SANDERSON AND I ARE WORRIED ABOUT YOU BOYS!" Came the scream from the old man, who sounded angry that I had taken so long to reply, yet ecstatic that I actually was alive. "Calm down you cynical old bastard. I' am alive... may not be currently well, but I' am far from being 6ft under" I replied, happy to know Kruger still was looking over us all. "Good, good... I had Black Fist agents track me down to Mistral to see If you and/or the marksmen had hid with me after your desertion and Roman went rogue." came Kruger's now calm reply, having brought himself back under control like the good officer he had always been. "Before you ask..Nope I have no idea where Kale and Shauno ran to, but I know Roman and whiskey went rogue... they attacked the SDC train I was stowing away on. I Killed Shevchenko, and the SSB took care of Savage. Unfortunately Danny and Luke also died in the attack." I said in a tone that heavily implied that I had caused their demise. Kruger went silent for a moment "Understood, I' am sorry they forced you into that position but they made their choice when they went rogue, Ok But if you do hear something from those snipers let me know... they may have permanently resided on my last nerve, but they still ARE my men!" Kruger said emphasising the point that he still sees us as his troopers and he'd do anything for us.

"What about you and Sanderson? are you still in Mistral?" I asked, wanting somewhere to run to if I needed an escape. "Nope, I and the family have had to leave Mistral and head to Vacuo, ensuring the Black Fist didn't find us again... I' am not letting my grandkids get exposed to that life. Now where exactly have you ended up?" I nodded processing this information should it become useful later. "In answer to your question... I' am currently working for the SDC as part of the White Castle Guard. I don't think the Black Fist will be trying to get me here, it would be stupid of them." I replied to my commander, who seemed to be scribbling this down from the scratching I heard in the background. "Ok Simon, I'll expect regular reports from you... to ensure that you don't give me a damned heart attack, I'll pass on the news of your return from the dead to Sanderson who long ago written you off as dead and gone." I chuckled at this news of my apparent death "Tell Sanderson Life is not that nice to him to have him rid of me that easily. I need to get going, I'll ensure you get weekly reports from me... sooner If i hear anything from Kale and Shaun." With that I deactivated my scroll and began my nightly ritual of dinner and exercises before going to sleep by 9pm in order to be well rested for the _0345 _alarms.

**Two Weeks Later: **

I had long since settled into a routine, Weiss had gotten back to her _0530 _starts in the morning in order to do early morning exercises and study, I had quickly learned that she hated the early mornings and that she only did them to impress her father despite him only rarely being at the estate, preferring to stay closer to SDC headquarters... at the same estate that Winter had been moved to. Everything Weiss did was to please him from what I could tell... well everything except her fighting, That seemed to irk Mr Schnee that she put so much effort into combat rather than her business and politics studies. I still spent most of my time shadowing her, making as many infuriating comments as possible to the heiress before and during her morning classes before going our separate ways during the afternoon for her to practice her combat techniques and I either went to the gym to work my knee to its breaking point before hobbling into the training area and standing in the shadows taking notes on her fighting style for our coming duel.

I was in a better mood today than normal due to me finally being able to land more than one flip in a row without any pain in my knee and the even better news that tomorrow my new weapon set would be ready to pick up _'Then I can finally show this Ice Queen whose boss' _I thought as I stood in the shadows, watching Weiss who was pushing herself all too hard against far too many battle mechs for one person to handle without a rapid fire weapon or a certain someone's flame gauntlets. I saw Weiss cop a face hit and hitting the ground before jumping straight back up and skewering the offending mech on her rapier _'She is a bloody stubborn as I' am... speaking of bloody...' _ I noticed blood running down her face from the last strike. I sighed and hit the deactivator switch for the bots nearby, knowing I was about to get torn a new one for just doing my job.

Weiss was just about to land a killing blow onto another mech when the bot shutdown, causing her to miss and nearly lose her footing. She looked around and eventually saw me as I stepped out of the shadows, once again a scowl painted her face "Now what was THAT for?!" she asked demandingly. I simply shrugged "Look in a mirror Snowflake, You have blood running down your face because you busted some of your stitches... so you should go and see the physician in order to get them restitched immediately." I said flatly, secretly enjoying being able to bark orders at the bossy little heiress. She must of sensed my enjoyment because she was infuriated "How dare you give me orders! I' am perfectly fine... in a battle people don't stop just because of a little blood so why should i in training?!" At the mention of battles I stopped as my inner monster saw red and ran rampant _'overconfident little...' _My mind raged as I turned to face Weiss once again "1: My job is to protect your life and health, so I get overriding control over you to ensure your continuing health and wellbeing. 2: Have you actually been in a battle? Have you actually even battled anything apart from mechanical training mechs?!" I boomed at her. My rationality telling me to calm my temper at the heiress lest I lose my job and get tossed onto the street... but I tossed my rationality straight out the window. My red/white Aura flared as my anger seethed.

I saw Weiss look at my aura intently as if it had triggered a memory but she shook it from her head as she focused on the current argument, she opened her mouth to say something angry but she suddenly stopped and looked down ashamedly at her feet. "No I have never once actually fought anything but the training mechs in proper combat. But I have studied many battles to try and understand what they're like in preparation for if I ever face one." She said half-heartedly, knowing I was about to lecture her. "Studying a battle is way different from actually being in one... I learnt that lesson in the hardest possible way, That was when I was 14 years old, two years after I took my first life! You know nothing Weiss Schnee about battles or about the horrific injuries that the weapons we carry can inflict on a human or a Faunus." I hissed at her my Aura flaring much more to the point that I saw Weiss begin reaching for her rapier in case I snapped. I clenched my fists but slowly reigned in my Aura and my anger before turning on my heel and storming out the door. Instead of going to my room, I headed to the gym... some poor boxing bag was about to get pummelled.

I lost track of time as I rotated from running laps of the gym, weights, pummelling every punching bag I could find in an Aura enhanced rage that had pent itself up through months without combat which I unleashed against every implement in the Gym. Eventually I collapsed, completely exhausted against a wall in a corner of the gym every muscle in my body aflame and my knee feeling extremely strained. I sat there for what seemed like forever before I managed to drag myself up and hobble to my room and collapse exhausted into my bed.

I awoke to the sound of my alarm as usual, yet this morning is was sore and sorry as all hell _'Ugh better have my gear packed... shit may get hectic after my great mind explosion yesterday' _I thought as I packed my field pack with the bare necessities for my escape before changing into my uniform and loaded and unsafe my pistol and rifle and exiting the room for the morning briefing, my finger held against my rifle's trigger. As I entered the kitchen area, not one person looked to me as I grabbed my usual caramel coffee with bacon and eggs, proceeding to my usual solitary corner of the room to sit and eat while listening to others conversation on sport and politics to try and relish the small slice of normality that the mealtimes brought with it compared to the utter chaos of the rest of my day. I sat nervously finishing off my meal, waiting for Commander Magenta to come and shoot me as she had promised if I ever threatened Weiss. But it never came, Magenta came, gave her usual briefing before handing it over to the watch commanders and left however the entire time shooting me hostile glances. This left me very perplexed, but I wasn't going to complain at being given an extra chance at life.

As I entered the castle I could feel dozens of sets of eyes burning into the back of my helmet _'Ugh so it is going to be this silent form of shaming... great' _ I thought depressingly as I once more took post outside Weiss' bedroom at _0526_ _'Four minutes to spare till she stirs' _I thought as I unslung my rifle and hung it loosely in my hands. Right on time I heard the final adjustments being made to her rapier as it was slid into its holder and Weiss finished preparing for another day of pushing for unreachable standards. I heard the lock on the door click and it swung open, Weiss saw me standing in my customary position and merely nodded to acknowledge my presence, no scowls, now condescending remarks or commands. Weiss was silent and kept her face hidden from me "My morning classes have been cancelled as we are going to the SDC weapons labs to have Myrtenaster finetuned and to pick up your new weapon set. Once I get these stitches out of my face, we'll duel." She said flatly, without emotion. I merely nodded, deciding for once to cut the girl some slack and refrain from the smartass comments _'I'll let my fighting do the talking for me' _I thought as I followed her down towards the waiting Limo and 4-wheel-drive escort. I made for the escort but was told it was full and to do my job as "CLOSE" protection and get in the limo. Growling I made my way to the limo and jumped in opposite Weiss, noticing an edition of the morning news on the screen I decided to plug in and listen to that, avoid any awkward conversation about my snap yesterday.

_"Today in Northern Atlas: The divide in the Black Fist separatist group has deepened in the wake of its failed election campaigns to take control of the outer colonies democratically. With the two factions officially splitting. The faction operating in the south closer to the Atlesian capital has declared its loyalty to the Atlesian government: renaming it military the "Atlesian Loyalist Militias" while the northern faction has declared independence from Atlas and ejected all Atlesian authorities and has begun ethnic cleansing of all Faunus from its territory. The Atlesian Army has deployed a task force led by Major General Ironwood to rout the rebels in order to restore order to the rebellious colonies and protect the Faunus population in the Area while simultaneously taking on the remnants of the White Fang in Atlas which have become increasingly violent, including an attack on The White Castle, Home of the Schnee Family" _

My eyes widened _'Wow I really have been out of the loop for a while if things have gotten this fucked up for the Fist.' _I thought as the reporter continued talking about the need for more Atlesian soldiers in the outer colonies to restore order and to disband all private armies. I continued listening for most of the trip, catching up on everything I could find out about the Fist in my months of absence. Eventually the limo stopped by a large, inconspicuous building just outside a small settlement. "This is the SDC weapons and technology development labs, they're the ones who created _Myrtenaster,_ among many other weapons and pieces of tech that the SDC has invested in." Came Weiss' flat emotionless explanation, her tone cold even by her standards. exiting the limo and entering the building Weiss headed off to have her rapier finetuned while I was led to another part of the building, eventually ending up in a small testing range, complete with the same mechs that Weiss fights. In the centre of the room was a SDC crafter and a table covered in a white cloth, which I assumed contained my weapon.

"Ah Mr Alexander, I' am Antonio Sapphire, the lead craftsman for this particular weapon." He said as he whipped the cloth off the table, to reveal a new gun staff, similar to my old weapon _Vindex Umbra _yet much different at the same time. I walked over and picked the weapon up and extended it into its bladed form, noting that it was about 20cm shorter than my previous weapon and that the forward blade sat lower than the rear one. I frowned at this "Oi Antonio, you misaligned the blades on this!" The weapons crafter shook his head. "It is supposed to be like that, you see from what we got of your old weapon we found you couldn't utilise your machine gun function and that the materials and construction were, no offence to be 2nd rate compared to our products. So we heavily modified your original design and used only top grade materials and construction techniques." I slowly nodded, trying to resist the urge to knock this guy out for insulting my forging of _Vindex Umbra. _"Ok what modifications did you make?" I said wanting to know how much of my original design was left.

Antonio nodded gleefully as he prepared to show off his work. "Well we rebalanced the weighting of the staff as well as shortened each blade by 5cm so each blade is 45cm and the staff by 10cm to bring the total length with blades extended to 180cm. Next is the blades themselves, we based your new blades extending mechanism off of a design used by Pyrrha Nikos' weapon in order to facilitate a smoother blade extension and retraction between melee, ranged and carry form. Speaking of the ranged form, your original design in regards to the handholds was quite good so we kept it with minor tweaking. The main difference is the ammo and the magazine." Upon saying this the crafter took my weapon and removed a 30cm portion of the staff which was revealed to be the magazine. "So you aren't lugging around those bulky cartridge pouches we redesigned the magazine and ammo, instead of traditional rounds you are now using a flechette round that is held in this detachable, 125 round magazine."

replacing the magazine on my weapon he picked up something from the table that turned out to be a long needle-like round with small stabilizing fins. "Despite having not as much range as a regular bullet, these flechettes are much more lethal kinetically at ranges of 100m of less, which is where I assume most of your combat will be taking place." Antonio said handing me the flechette to inspect. _'Wow I feel sorry for Weiss when she has to face these bad boys.' _ I thought to myself as I replaced the flechette on the table and picked up my weapon and a holder for it which slung over my left shoulder and held several more magazines across my chest before heading out onto the testing floor. "Seeing as you're so eager to test it, I'll activate the testing mechs, have fun Mr Alexander." Antonio said as he raised several bullet proof screens and the mechs activated and charged me.

I racked the bolt on my new weapon and fired off several bursts of the new flechette rounds which shredded straight through the mechs and embedded themselves halfway through the bullet proof screens. I was very surprised just how lethal these needles were _'Ok maybe not use these on Weiss, I'd hate to impale her' _ I thought as the last of the mechs fell. Antonio clapped from the arena's control booth and activated a 2nd group of 5 mechs. This time I extended the blades, seeing them extend in several segments and lock into place, I flourished my new weapon and charged into the mechs utilising brute force cuts and slashes and stabs instead of my former style of kicks and flips as well as more graceful, acrobatic motions with my blades. The first two mechs fell easier but my reaction times were slow and my senses dulled by months without constant practice and combat, which caused the 3rd mech to get a clean strike to the back of my head. It sent me sprawling on the ground. "Oh you cheeky little shit!" I growled as I unleashed a burst of 30 flechettes into the mech, noting the slight loss of accuracy and increased round dispersion when the blade was extended combined with the lack of a laser aimer in blade mode. Once the 3rd mech had fallen I quickly dispensed of the next mech with a decapitating strike. The final mech and I circled each other momentarily before I lunged In and before I reached it I harnessed my aura to augment my jump as I flipped over the mech and brought myself down behind it, changing instantly into a horizontal slash which slashed the mech in 2.

As the mech fell I felt my knee strain but not buckle or give way _'Well that's a piece of very good news, it's healing' _I thought happily as the bullet proof screens dropped "Bravo Mr Alexander, I hope you are very happy with your new weapon.. if you need more magazines or flechettes, just say so. The SDC is happy to supply you with all the ammo and parts you need. And one more thing before you go, as a side project I and the others put this together from the blades of your old weapon as a back up and surprise weapon." The crafter said, handing me a metal case. Which contained a pair of black armoured gauntlets. I picked them up and attached them to my wrists, flicking them I saw blades about 30cm long extend out: engraved into one blades was the word _Vindex_ and _Umbra _into the other one. A flood of memories came back and I smiled nostalgically at the gauntlets. "Thank-you, I'll be sure to put these to very good use." I said as I left the testing room to go and find the Heiress.

I found her waiting impatiently in the lobby. "Finally Guard, how long does it take to pick up a weapon?" She asked somewhat annoyingly. I shrugged "Depends... I tested it out before I accepted it, never accept a weapon you haven't seen in action" I replied nonchalantly, which succeeded in infuriating the heiress but she didn't say anything, preferring to keep her calm demeanour in front of the SDC staff, who would have been sure to ensure any un-Schnee like outbursts were reported to her father.

**1 Week Later:**

After I had received my new weapon I had taken to training with it incessantly, whenever I had spare time I was constantly working on my melee combat and trying to get the instincts and reaction times I once possessed. Though I was having some success with my regaining those, regaining my agility and acrobatic style was proving more troublesome as my knee was still getting used to the increased tempo of my movements and it quickly strained early on, but the more I practiced I could feel my knee lasting slightly longer each day.

Today started off like any other, however I knew it would be different as Weiss had gotten the stitches removed from her face the evening before after I had returned to the guard building and I knew that today she would be itching for that duel because I had been goading her more than usual with my snide remarks... It really is surprising she hasn't impaled me already. As I stood guard outside Weiss' door that morning I adjusted the blade gauntlets on my arm which I was wearing for the first time, just in case I needed them in the duel. Weiss exited her room a couple minutes later than usual and looked to my helmeted form with a smug, superior grin "Today I put you in your place guard, you'll learn the consequences of trying to best a Schnee" She confidently. I merely shook my head, a small smirk appearing on my face in anticipation of what was to come I noted the fresh raised scar that had replaced the stitches on her face, which Weiss attempted to hide by having her hair down over it. Weiss morning history tutorial was based around some boring economics subject which I barely paid attention to, instead just trying not to fall asleep. By the time Weiss had gone off for her lunch I slunk back to the barracks and changed into my old Black Fist uniform, minus the shoulder patches identifying my former allegiance due to the greater flexibility and freedom of movement it gave me compared to the armour that the guardsmen wore. replacing the sling and bandolier for my weapon back over my shoulder and fixing the gauntlets back over my wrist I proceeded to the training area, where Weiss was already waiting for me, _Myrtenaster _in her hand pointed towards me. "Right then... you ready?" She said simply with a flourish of her rapier.

Not replying to the heiress I drew my weapon and set it into its gun mode, setting the laser sight on Weiss' forehead I let loose with a burst of flechette rounds, the darts being stopped by a wall of Ice chucked up by Weiss before she used her glyphs to speed herself up and charge me. I barrel rolled to my left and swung my weapon around to unleash more flechettes towards the heiress who leaped up into the air using her glyphs to essentially run across the air and out of the path of my flechettes. As the magazine on my weapon emptied I ejected it and drew another one from my bandolier and placed it in place on my staff, taking less than three seconds to complete the reload. swinging around to once again take aim at the heiress I saw just in time to see a chunk of ice headed my way, causing me to back flip out of the way, landing awkwardly on my knee. Grunting I decided to step it up I extended my weapons blades and charged in with all my force behind the swing. A Mighty clang echoed throughout the arena as _Myrtenaster's _blade met with the forward blade of my weapon. We began trading blows, neither person able to get an advantage... at least until as our weapons once more locked i slammed Weiss with a head but which sent her reeling, Pressing my assault I picked up the tempo of my strikes, each one trying to disarm rather than dismember Weiss.

I was enjoying actually having someone to fight again, I massive grin covered my face as I continued forcing Weiss into a corner. then out of nowhere came a swift kick to my injured knee, I yelped in pain, however my Aura protected it from any damage actually being done to it. "Oh you sneaky little..." I caught my tongue before I could finish my insult and charged back in at Weiss who catapulted herself with a glyph and landed behind me, swiftly delivering a punishing strike to my weapon, sending it clattering across the arena floor. Weiss smirked triumphantly and lunged in to win the match with a strike to my chest, However I threw my arms up and caught her rapier between the blades of my gauntlets. I was not used to using such weapons and knew I either had to get my staff back or end this now, deciding upon the later I pushed Weiss' rapier away and dropped into a spinning kick which somehow managed to knock Weiss down to the ground, I quickly retracted the blades on my gauntlets and lunged onto Weiss, rolling her on her back and executing a straight arm bar on her dominant left arm. I heard a sharp yelp of pain from the heiress as I hyper rotated her elbow and shoulder joints, doing it slowly as to drag out the pain and give her time to submit before I injured her. "Come on Weiss you can't win, tap out before I' am forced to break something!" I commanded her, a threatening edge to my voice. Weiss began to open her mouth to tell me to where to shove my demands of surrender, before I applied more pressure to her arm. "Ok Ok I yield, just let go of my arm!" She yelped, obviously in a lot of pain.

I smirked evilly and let go over, rolling away before standing to retrieve my weapon, As I picked it up and turned around I was faced with a menacing scowl from Weiss who was right in my face. "You cheated you little scoundrel!" the Heiress complained. I laughed right in her face "First rule of combat... there is no such thing as cheating, you do ANYTHING needed to win, If that means having to carry concealed weapons or have a bit of rough and tumble in the dirt, so be it. Because out in the real world... it is kill or be killed, no rules, no holds barred... pure survival of the fittest and smartest combatants." I said smugly and holstered my weapon. "I will beat you eventually, even if I have to train and spar with you every day! " Weiss replied, determined to beat me and become better. I stopped, thinking this over for a moment, deciding I needed the practice just as much as she did. "Deal, we'll start tomorrow... but for now I need to let my knee rest." I said walking out of the arena, a slight limp present in my knee from the strike it had taken from Weiss, for once the day hadn't ended with us a moment away from strangling or impaling each other, Weiss seemed to have learned a healthy respect for my tenacity in battle after the ass kicking she had been dealt. I on the other hand had allowed all the pent up rage to be vented in the fight.

That night after making my weekly report to Kruger, I took out a book I had _'borrowed' _from the Schnee family library, it was on the Great War nearly 80 years ago. It was very good reading to compare weapons and tactics from then and now. I came to regret this choice of reading when I came to a section on the mentality of soldiers in war and their loss of their morals and values in favour of survival: this section hit me hard especially the quote from the author. A man named Friedrich Nietzsche that made me take a good hard look at myself and made me realise exactly what had happened to me over the last 4 years. _"__He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . . when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you"_

**A/N: **After much indecision I eventually decided to split this chapter, rather than have an even longer monster of a chapter. Now with the Sequel I have already had a couple questions about it with regards to any pairings that I may include: I have given it a bit of thought at some I might put in, but I' am not the best at writing fluffy things... But If people request for something, you never know I might end up inspired and include it somewhere if I feel it will add depth to the story I' am trying to tell. As always please **Review Review Review** people... I always respond to any questions, criticisms or praise that my readers send my way! -CC Signing off.


	17. Coming to Terms

**A/N:** Due to a couple people asking me how long until I was going to update again and thinking waiting until Friday when I had the first chapter of the sequel finished was too long to wait. So in response to my valued readers advice: I once again have split the concluding chapter in order to give my readers something to enjoy while I finalise the first chapter of the Sequel (My plan always was to have the first chapter of the sequel released about the same time as the Volume finale, so this isn't pushing it back.. it is merely making the wait between updates less.) I hope people don't see this as a tease seeing as I keep promising the next chapter is going to be the last... But Come Friday 31st October the Sequel **WILL **be uploaded :)

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read the first RWBY Fanfic I have made (and the first Fanfic I have written at all in nearly a year)... Special thank-you to **xThat One Personx, lioncousin**, **Blue Hurricane, Monochrome Spectrum, HeroBladeRiyet, DePlexx **and **Presbydos** for your consistent reviews, PM's, questions, encouragement and advice... you people have been a great motivation to keep writing. I hope you all enjoy this deeper look into Simon's fractured mind -CC

**On a side note: Simon's theme song is **_**"What I've Done" -Linkin Park.**_

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own RWBY, that great privilege goes to the team at Rooster Teeth and Monty. But if I did own it: I'd send Neo to a psychologist... girl was taking way too much joy in killing Yang.

**Chapter 17:Coming to Terms. Simon's PoV: 1 Week after the conclusion of Chapter 16 (11 Months before RWBY Vol1 ep1)**

I had spent most of the previous evening in the guards machining room engraving the quote I had read into the staff of my weapon, now named _Umbra Vigilans (The Watchful Shadow) _as a reminder to never again allow myself to become the remorseless killer I had been in the Fist_. _As I entered the kitchen that morning and followed my usual routine I sat in my corner, still reflecting upon everything I had done in extremely great detail... finding myself completely disgusted by the things I had found myself capable of when I had given up my humanity and my conscience. I was drawn from my self-loathing by my name being called by Commander Magenta. I looked up to see the Commander standing in front of me having finished her morning briefing, looking very pissed. "Simon, Mr Schnee arrived at the estate very late last night and has requested a meeting with you... better have your shit packed, because if he listened to me you'll be gone today!" the Commander scowled, obviously pissed at me over the screaming with Weiss a couple weeks back then the punishing sparing sessions that I had subjected the Heiress to each day this week as well as the general contempt I treated her with. I merely shrugged at the Commander "you're face is the same colour as your name again Magenta, you may need some anger management classes?" and then walked out of the briefing room, leaving behind a stunned group of castle guards and a beyond pissed off guard commander.

Upon entering the castle I was met by one or Mr Schnee's SSB guards and brought to the man's study, leaving my helmet and weapons outside as I was ordered to. I saw the head of the Schnee Family filling out paperwork with an exceedingly grumpy look upon his face. "Hello Mr Alexander, do please take a seat" Came the disarming introduction, I did what I was told not really wanting to cause a scrap between myself and Mr Schnee. "Now Mr Alexander, I had Commander Magenta in here last night giving me a massive list of reasons as to why I should either dismiss you from my service or send you back to the SSB ranging from the contempt you treat her with, through to verbally berating my daughter and engaging in armed combat with her. Those last reasons are how you end up dead Mr Alexander, you have any rebuttal before I render my decision?" Mr Schnee said evenly, not giving anything away as to his intentions.

I gave it a moment's thought "Well Mr Schnee, Commander Magenta has given me absolutely no reason not to treat her with contempt, given that she sees me as some intrusive piece of SSB trash... her words not mine. As for those incidents regarding your daughter, I berated her due to her claiming to have knowledge in an area that I was an expert and she had no idea of. And the combat... She needs to practice her fighting on more than training mechs if she is to progress in her skill at all, she has no idea how to adapt to the challenges and surprises that a human combatant can throw her way." I replied in a flat businesslike tone, staring Mr Schnee right in the eyes. Mr Schnee grunted "I really don't frighten you do I? You aren't afraid to tell it to me straight rather than cower and grovel to me and only say what I want to hear like most people do." I simply shrugged "I' am well aware of what you have the potential to do to me if i end up on your bad side, but after the last 4 years... I honestly don't give a damn. Besides if you really were going to get rid of me it would have already been done, you wouldn't have bothered with this meeting... I simply would have disappeared sometime last night." I replied matter-of-factly. My eyes still fixated on Mr Schnee trying to judge if I had signed my own death mark. Mr Schnee looked at me for a moment, stunned at my reply. "You happen to be correct, I never did intend to remove you from your current post.. however be careful with your attitude lest you end up in trouble. As for my daughter's combat skill... how would you appraise them as someone with much more experience?" Mr Schnee Asked.

"Honestly? She has potential, her weapon and semblance complement each other very well, however she needs smarter, faster and more difficult opponents in order to get better... I will only present a challenge for so long until she gets used to my techniques and I get used to hers." I replied, wondering where this was going. Mr Schnee now smirked "Ok Mr Alexander, I'll organise some tougher opponents for her to prove herself on. In the meantime, continue training with her... If she wishes to attend that Academy in Vale she has been pestering me about she will have to work very hard for it! And if she doesn't meet my expectations with her skill, she won't be attending. Now that will be all, I have to deal with the latest _White Fang _attacks on my company in Vale and Mistral." With that I was shown out to being my duties for the day, arriving at Weiss' door just as she opened it up, she looked very stressed, the still fresh pink scar where her stitches had been standing out on her paler than usual skin. "Something the matter ma'am?" I asked, deciding to play things official and formal while Mr Schnee was around. Weiss turned to look at me, the strain clearly written across her face "Nothing that concerns you" came the snappy reply. _'And that is why the guards call you Ice Queen among other more vulgar things' _I thought to myself I thought to myself as I followed behind the Heiress, who headed towards her father's office. I hung back outside with the SSB guards while Weiss entered to see her father for what I assumed was about the first time since the attack on the White Castle.

I paced outside of the door, the boredom of waiting overtaking me. I noticed the eyes of the SSB guards followed me as I paced, which irked me greatly "Oi, If you're going' to stare... at try to speak to me, might make this boredom a bit more bearable for us all." I said flustered towards the guards who just continued staring mutely which frustrated me further. Just as I was about to smack the guards in the face the door clicked open and a meek looking Weiss exited who walked off speedily, before following I sent one final scowl and a one fingered salute towards the guards and off I strode after Weiss. She was more edgy than usual through her classes and when it came time for our daily sparing practice She fought with a ferocity and anger I hadn't seen in her before. I quickly found myself on the back foot against her aggressive use of glyphs and ice. I ended up slipping on the ice that Weiss had put down in front of me as I charged her. As I laid sprawled on the ground I saw Weiss charging in, her rapier glowing a dangerous white. _'Oh holy fuck this is going to hurt' _I thought as I raised the most powerful aura shield I could... only for something peculiar to happen. I saw time slowdown, my senses sharpened and I saw Weiss' strike incoming, already increasing in speed... without thinking I rolled to my right, feeling time speeding up again, but now I was out of the way of whatever strike Weiss had in store for me. When Weiss hit nothing but the ground and stumbled I punted the rapier out of her hands and picked it up for myself, flourishing it victoriously.

Weiss turned and scowled at me "Give me back Myrtenaster!" She demanded, an ever increasing amount of venom in her voice. I chuckled, once again flourishing the rapier so that I was holding it by the blade and the hilt faced towards Weiss. The angry heiress went to grab the blade but I pulled it back out of her reach, "I' am NOT in the mood for your games Simon!" Weiss growled at me menacingly, obviously fed up with my shit, but I on the other hand was having an absolute ball. "You know Weiss, That time on the train wasn't the first time we met?" I said flaring my red-white Aura, knowing I was about to unleash a massive storm of anger, but decided now was as good as time as any to spring this on her, while she didn't have a lethal rapier and when she needed something to lighten her mood, I just hoped this wouldn't backfire. Weiss tilted her head as her memory put the pieces together. "You were the stowaway on the dust ship a few years back weren't you?" I nodded smirking, slowly edging myself towards the door. Weiss nodded slowly, the pieces falling slowly into place and a seething look crept onto the Heiress' face "YOU... YOU DESTROYED THE DRESS DAD HAD BOUGHT FOR ME ALL THE WAY FROM VALE?!" Weiss screamed accusingly. I simply laughed, "Yeah that was me... never got the chance to leave a thank-you note for the comfy bed while on the run from psycho Faunus." At this snide remark Weiss snapped and with charged me, causing me to throw _Myrtenaster _in the opposite direction of the door and make my getaway as Weiss retrieved her weapon "I'll get you Simon... you can't avoid retribution for this!" came the vengeful scream. _'Yeah but hopefully by that time you won't be so damned over emotional about something from 4 years ago'_ I thought as I made my escape back to the guards barracks.

Once I made it back to my room, I slammed the door shut and locked it. Finally safe from the ticking time bomb that was Weiss' temper I laid back on my bed and opened up the code locked journal I had been recording all the horrific deeds I had done since my life had been torn apart. I recorded everything in as much detail as I could, so that if I were to die, at least the crimes of others wouldn't go unpunished... especially those of the SDC and Atlesian Arms, While I would still kill White Fang scum without a 2nd thought... targeting innocent Faunus like I once did was something I would never do again, I'd sooner turn my weapons on my allies before doing that. As I finished detailing my account of the various raids on Faunus villages, feeling a bit of the guilt I felt come off my shoulders knowing that one day a written account of the Crimes that SDC, Atlesian Arms and the Black Fist will one day become public I closed and locked the journal and placed it back in my drawer and went about getting dinner and doing my nightly exercises before getting some rest, plotting ways to weasel out of any possible revenge Weiss may have planned for me until sleep overtook me and the horrors that are my memories came out to torment me.

**A Few Days Later: **

It was Saturday and I awoke and went through my usual routine, at least until I got to the morning briefing, where I was told by Commander Magenta that for today and tomorrow my services weren't needed as Weiss was spending time with her father and that his guards would be responsible for her protection during that time. I didn't complain... this was my first actual time off, well ever. I simply made my way to my room and changed out of my guards uniform and into one of the sets of Black Fist snow uniforms I had and exited the castle grounds on one of the castle guard's quad bikes (that I may not have had permission to take) and made my way into the forest near the castle, for a day of pointless riding, cutting up off road on the quad bike. I did this for several hours in the snowy pastures adjoining White Castle. By the end of it about an hour before sunset, I was covered in snow but extremely happy and enjoying every minute, as I approached the castle grounds once again, I gunned the bike and went in for one last donut at full speed before i returned it to where I found it.

Just as I began to cut hard left I saw a glowing glyph appear on the ground _'What the actual fuck?!' _My mind screamed as I tried to avoid it... too late, the Quad bike hit the glyph and it stopped in its tracks. I however kept going flying, I braced for impact on the grass but this time I hit a speed glyph that led onto a track of Ice that was forming before my eyes. My mind very quickly worked out what was going on "FUCK YOU WEISS!" I yelled as I saw the ice path run down a nearby hill into a semi-frozen lake. _'That evil ice hearted bitch... I knew I shouldn't have confessed to ruining the dress.' _was my last thought before I hit the icy slosh that was the lake. _'Holy fuck this is SO DAMNED COLD!' _I thought as I broke the surface and scrambled for the shore, flaring my aura as I did, hoping it would warm me up... it didn't. I looked up to the top of the hill to see Weiss nearly falling over in hysterics at the misfortune she had caused me "Consider ourselves even Simon... you ruined my dress and you take an ice bath" came her call, barely hiding laughter. I growled and scrambled through the snow... my anger seething, just about ready to slice the heiress into as many pieces as I possibly could and feed her to the nearest grim. As I reached the top of the slope and met the still chuckling Heiress my anger failed me as my mind pointed out I had never actually seen Weiss smile or laugh.

"You seem very happy with yourself... I swear if I get hypothermia I will end you in our next duel." I managed to squeak out between my chattering teeth. Weiss simply shrugged, seeming carefree in a way I'd never seen before "Well if it comes to that, It was totally worth it to see you take a dunk." The heiress replied, still laughing... which by this point was kinda creeping me out "Ok who are you and what did you do with Weiss Schnee?" I asked accusingly, not used to seeing the Heiress as anything but pretentious and stuck up and over confident. "What? Can't I have a sense of humour away from the watching eyes of my family and their staff? Besides doing things outside of their say so is always fun" Weiss replied to me in a serious tone finally managing to get her laughter under control. This left me at a bit of a loss for words at this hidden rebellious streak in the white haired girl. "Having a sense of humour is fine... but this seems a bit overboard for something that i did out of necessity as a 12 year old." I growled, heading back to the still running quad bike and readied myself to go back to the castle. "Well If you excuse me snowflake, I have to find a source of extreme heat before I freeze... I' am sure you can make your way back to the castle seeing as you got out here just fine." And with that I sped off towards the castle.

Looking around I saw Weis chasing after me, using her glyph's to run across the air. "You won't catch me Weiss, glyphs or no glyphs... I always win, be it races or fights!" I yelled out and gunned the quad bike, pushing its engine to the limits. I saw the castle come into sight, I also saw patches of ice suddenly appearing in front of me, _'Oh no Weiss, fool me once.. shame on you... fool me twice'. _I went into evasive manoeuvres, dodging the ice, just the same as I had dodged bullets on a similar quad bike so many months ago during one of the many missions hunting for Schwarzer, except now instead of fear, hate and anger coursing through my mind, it was now replaced competitiveness, humour and a generally lighter mood than existed during my time with Rum Squad. All the anger I had felt from the dip in the lake left me as I crossed through the gates leaving Weiss in my dust and headed into the guard's motor pool that contained everything from quad bikes like this through to the 4 wheel drives armed with machine guns and grenade launchers. I parked the bike where I had found it and snuck back out before the guards in charge of running the motor pool tore into me for stealing one of the quad bikes. I saw Weiss waiting outside, the humour and rebellion gone as if it had never existed, however I had gained the knowledge that this girl was more than meets the eye, more than the irritable, bitchy Heiress she is to most people. As I walked by her on my way back to the barracks I nodded knowingly, no words were spoken... none needed to be.

**3 Months Later (8 months before RWBY Vol1 Ep1), Simon's PoV:**

Weiss and I were preparing for our daily duels when we were interrupted by Mr Schnee and Commander Magenta, both looking very serious. "There has been a change of plans for your combat practice today, Weiss on the recommendation of your body guard... I have prepared a special opponent for you to face while the Commander and I watch and evaluate your combat prowess. proceed to the combat arena, Mr Alexander if you'd come with us." Mr Schnee said in his most commanding tone, I turned to Weiss and gave her a thumbs up of encouragement before I turned on my heel and followed Mr Schnee to another room filled with TV screens that showed the combat arena at every possible angle.

It was then I saw what awaited the Heiress... A massive intelligent suit of armour, with a sword several times larger than a person. I looked across to Mr Schnee "When I said she needed more challenging opponents... you really took that seriously didn't you?" I asked questioningly, slightly worried for the Heiress' safety. "When I do something, I do it to the full extent of what I can deliver, no half measures. Also, If my daughter wishes to be a huntress, I will ensure she is the best huntress in all of Remnant, and I will pit her against the most powerful machines that my company can create to test her, if she fails those tests, she will give up this silly notion of being a huntress and take her place at SDC HQ with me." Came Mr Schnee's emotionless reply. _'Right... you don't approve of your daughter's dream so you try to force her to abandon it, then you have the gall to say this was my idea? Yeah.. you're a prick!' _I mentally fumed.

Turning to the screens I saw Weiss enter the combat arena to come face to face with the Giant Armour. I watched on nervously as the armour stood to its full height and raised its sword in preparation to attack, this mech was surprisingly quick with its strikes for something so large, but it didn't match up to Weiss' speed and agility who simply flipped herself to the left and drew her rapier and lunged into attack the mech. landing a hit onto the Armour before briefly twirling and landing. I watch The Giant Armour swing again, but Weiss darts behind her it, landing several slashes on the mech's back as she spins. The Armour responds by swinging its sword horizontally at towards Weiss who manages to block the attack, however the power behind the mech's strike sends the Heiress sliding backwards across the arena. the mech continues its assault on Weiss, sending her flying back a 2nd time.

By now my worry was beginning to grow, Weiss was getting overwhelmed by the ferociously quick attacks of the armour. I looked across to Mr Schnee, who had a small smirk on his face, obviously thinking that this mech was going to beat his daughter and she'd be free to manipulate to his will. _'You are a right royal shit... not even worried about her safety right now are you?' _I thought viciously, bringing my eyes back to the fight I saw Weiss beginning to utilise her glyphs to increase her speed and intensity of her strikes, using the glyphs as aerial springboards to launch several strikes at the armour which caught it off guard. _'heh way to go Snowflake... Show that mech and your dad what you can do' _ I mentally cheered, a small smirk coming to my face... which was quickly wiped off as the Armour landed a massive punch to Weiss' head as she dodged a horizontal slash. Seeing her go careening across the arena and winding up in a slumped heap I felt a lump of fury build up in my throat _'What sort of father subjects their own child to this sort of treatment? Come on Weiss, get up... Show this mech you don't mess with the Heiress' _I saw Weiss clamber up, slightly shaky from the shock of the punch, blood streaming down her face from a large cut across her forehead.

Forcing myself to keep watching rather than rush off to jump into the fight I saw Weiss become even more determined and focused, igniting her rapier a crimson red and met the charging armour's blade, the force of her dust imbued blade causing the armour to stumble backwards.I watch as Weiss twirls and stabs _Myrtenaster_ into the ground, which sends a wave of ice forward. This freezes one of the Armour's feet in place, immobilizing the Armour. The armour then swings at Weiss as she runs forward and leaps up, landing perfectly onto the sword, her rapier glowing yellow, she rolls along the sword and slashes at the armour, destroying the ice crystals and knocking her opponent's weapon away.

I look over to Mr Schnee who was now looking indifferent, probably realising his little scheme to make Weiss lose confidence in her abilities and bend to his will has failed. I smirk triumphantly at seeing Mr Schnee fail at manipulating someone who deserves better than manipulation. Looking back to watch Weiss create a white glyph underneath herself and rotates the revolver once more as the Giant Armour tries to punch downwards at her. However, she evades the attack and causes the glyph on the ground to explode, launching her foe into the air. Weiss then sends six beams of blue energy at the Armour, locking it in midair. With one final glyph-augmented leap into the air, Weiss creates yet another glyph, which she uses to dash at the Giant Armour, cutting right through it. I began cheering and clapping as Weiss lands crouched behind the crumbling armour _'Way to go Weiss, you'll prove your dad wrong yet' _I thought as I signalled for the physician to attend the arena and grabbed the first aid kit before going to see to Weiss' injuries, leaving behind Mr Schnee who was impressed, surprised and furious at the same time.

Entering the arena I saw Weiss still crouching, I could hear her puffing and I saw drops of blood hitting the ground. "Way to go Snowflake, you sure showed that mech who was boss, the physician is on the way to clean that gash up. How are you feeling after that?" I ask as I pull out some disinfected wipes to clean the blood off Weiss' face in order to gauge the size of the cut. "That was by far the most difficult fight I have ever been in, I feel accomplished... glad I beat father's challenge. I won't allow him to derail my dream of being a huntress." Came the determined reply from Weiss. I chuckled at this "You're also going to feel like a freight train hit you tomorrow. That punch was painful just to watch. The physician shouldn't be more than a moment, so just hold still here and catch your breath." I knelt down next to Weiss having finished cleaning the wound, hoping it wouldn't add another scar to the one Weiss already had across her left eye.

"be proud of yourself, you beat something I don't think I would have been able to defeat one on one." I said honestly, knowing that almost all of my combat experience was against soldiers untrained in Aura use, and even when i did fight a trained opponent I was normally in a team and could count on support if I got into trouble, just like against Schwarzer. Weiss looked up to me incredulously, obviously not believing what I was saying, before she could reply however the Physician arrived and promptly shooed me away as he got to work patching up Weiss' face. I turned to exit the arena, shooting a glare the way of Mr Schnee, I had no respect for those who tried to manipulate others into doing their bidding at the cost of their victims own dreams and ambitions, and I resolved to go to hell and back if need be to ensure Weiss didn't get manipulated into going down a dark path as I did by so many including the SSB.

**2 Months Later (6 months before RWBY Vol1 Ep1) Simon's PoV:**

"Remember people, Today is an important garden party for the Schnee Dust Company, so highly polished armour for those on duty on the gates and fences and your best suits for those for roving the party area, keep your weapons concealed and your most polite manners on show. We need to ensure that the representatives from Mistral and the victor of The Mistral Regional Tournament: Miss Pyrrha Nikos codename: _Hoplite. _ Feel very welcome and not at all intimidated. Guardsmen Alexander, you of course will handle _Snowflake's _security throughout the day and into the evening when Weiss gives her singing performance in the town amphitheatre" came Commander Magenta's briefing for the garden party the Mr Schnee was putting on to show off his and Atlesian Arm's latest collaboration in weapons and dust. _'Ugh great, socialising! Dealing with rich people isn't worth finally get to see Weiss sing' _I internally groaned at having to not only deal with upper class snobbery but also wear a suit and not have _Umbra Vigilans _with me while doing so, probably for the best seeing as I'd probably be overly tempted to slice anyone who tried to vent their superiority complexes at me, which I might still do seeing as I'll still have my blade gauntlets on underneath my suit. Though admittedly I was interested in seeing Weiss sing, she practiced during the evenings after I had returned to the barracks so I had never heard her do it before.

After the briefing I walked up to the castle, not exactly in the best mood, crowds disagreed with me big time... hopefully Weiss would keep to the peripheries of the party, though I knew that was almost certainly not going to happen. Upon reaching her door I waited outside as I usually did I pulled at my collar and tie.. having not grown any fonder of suits since the last time I had worn them, I felt as if I was about to get strangled at any moment, not to mention my range of movement was severely restricted in this. Judging from the groans of frustration I could hear from within the door, Weiss was having just as much trouble or she was just nervous I couldn't tell. I looked at my watch _0841, _Weiss had slept in due to it being Sunday and not having those hours of morning tutorials. _'Guests begin arriving about 1030, Why are we getting ready this early...' _I mentally whined as I stood guard outside Weiss' room constantly tugging at my tie and ensuring the cuffs of my suit didn't go over where the blades of my gauntlets eject from should they be needed. I heard the lock click on Weiss' door and I prepared for another day's duty. Out stepped Weiss, for once without _Myrtenaster _and I also noticed her scar was hidden under make up, no doubt at her father's insistence. "Ready for today Snowflake? I asked using her castle guard codename. Weiss twirled around on her heel to face me "Does it look like I' am ready?" came her snappy reply. _'Ok, at least I' am not the only one who won't be enjoying themselves today' _I thought as I saw Weiss looking to become more visibly stressed every moment. "Ok What's up? I thought you'd be used to these sorts of social gatherings?" I voiced curiously.

Weiss Simply sighed and walked away downstairs not responding to my questioning, I rolled my eyes and followed her down stairs towards Mr Schnee's study, where he was to discuss with Weiss his expectations and plans for the day. As we approached the door I saw a female guard in SSB uniform that I recognised from my first day as a Castle Guard, It was Amber Flame.. assigned to protect Winter Schnee. _'Oh shit... family reunion about to go down, this won't end pretty I don't think' _ I thought as I saw the study door open to reveal as I suspected.. none other than Winter Schnee. I saw Weiss visibly tense up at seeing her younger sister for the first time in nearly 6 months. Weiss was beckoned silently into the study and the soundproofed door closed behind her, leaving Amber and I both standing out there, visibly worried about how this was going to go. I looked across to Amber, who by my estimations was early to mid-20's. "So what's the younger sister like? They both seemed nervous about being in there together with their father?" I asked Amber, trying to work out what to expect when that door opens. Amber looked over to me "She is pretty much everything Mr Schnee wanted Weiss, his Heiress to be. Intelligent, easily manipulated, a business orientated mind, has no interest in combat studies unlike your charge." came the reply from the other guard. _'Great... This isn't going to help Snowflake's mood one bit' _ I thought and continued to wait.

It took all of five minutes for Weiss to leave the study, slamming the door behind her and storming off back up stairs to her room. I sighed and nodded to Amber "I'll go and try to sort this out, you try and keep Winter and Mr Schnee out of this for now... it won't help." I said quietly to Amber as I strode after the Heiress. I saw her bedroom door ajar "Weiss, I'am entering... so no impaling me on _Myrtenaster _please" I warned before pushing the door open. I looked around the expansive room, finally finding the Heiress staring out a window, visibly shaking. "What's the matter Weiss? What happened in there?" I asked, genuinely concerned. "It doesn't matter, it isn't anything I haven't been handling perfectly ever since I decided I wanted to be a Huntress." Came Weiss' pained, almost inaudible reply. Rolling my eyes at the her stubbornness I walked up beside her and looked out the window. "If that is 'handling it perfectly' then I'd hate to see what handling it poorly looks like. You can't simply hide everything behind your wall of cold callousness, irritability, bossiness and attempts at perfection. You say this all started because you wanted to be a Huntress, What exactly happened?" I said firmly, not letting this slide. Weiss growled at me "It isn't your concern, never has been and never will be!" She snapped, her hand going to where _Myrtenaster _should have been, only to find it not there due to her not having worn it down stairs.

I shook my head "Weiss, you can't just go and try and make this go away by threatening me with violence. I have lived an extremely violent life so violence no longer phases me. For I have paid a steep physical price, and am now beginning to pay an even steeper psychological toll for what I have done." I replied, my hands going to my facial scars. Weiss' expression softened slightly as I continued "What has got you so worked up about today? You may as well answer because I won't stop hounding you over it until I get my answer and while you maybe stubborn, my stubbornness is on an entirely different level." I said turning to face Weiss, my eyes locked with hers. Weiss' strength to resist failed her. "I hate days like today because I' am forced to act how my father specifies and hide who I truly am in order to fit in with his vision for the Schnee family and our company. Which is why I don't have _Myrtenaster _and why the scar which I see as a badge of pride for protecting my sister is hidden under this disgusting make up, bet you'd never hide your scares like they're an embarrassment." Came Weiss' frustrated reply. _'So your dad wants you to be more like your sister? Make you give up your identity and independence... Yeah I can see why you're pissed' _I thought as I pieced together what Amber had told me and what Weiss had just said, though she was wrong about my scars.

"My scars are reminders of the horrors of what I've done, of what happens when one discards their humanity, their conscience, their independence. I might be able to hide them if I ever chose to, but they are still there as are what they stand for. Just as your scar is still there under that veil of makeup as is the pride it stands for. Your father wants to make you into his little puppet? don't let him... You won't like where it leads." I said gently, trying not to let my own anger escape. Weiss looked intently at my scars, not only the facial ones, but the ones visible on my hands, probably wondering exactly what I've done. "When it comes to the concert tonight: Sing a song of your choosing rather than one your father chose, and get rid of the makeup hiding the scar show it for all to see. Small things like that, just to show him you are your own person... not his puppet." I suggested, knowing It'd probably cause a shit storm, but not really caring for what Mr Schnee thinks.

Weiss nodded slowly, agreeing with my course of action "Ok, I think I can do that... play it by his rules at the garden party but tonight I rebel." I saw a small smirk come over her face, which was quickly replaced by one of worried curiosity "What did you mean when you said I wouldn't like where I'd be led to if I let my father manipulate and mould me?" This line of questioning caught me off guard "Umm, that discussion can wait until another time... trust me it is one that will take a long while to go through. Now we should head back down stairs, your father and sister would be waiting." I said heading out of the room, my head swimming with hatred towards the SDC, The Fist, Roman.. but mostly at myself. I heard Weiss following me and I could almost feel her eyes burning into my soul... what was left of it anyway. I ignored it and just kept walking down the stairs, my face set into an impassive expression. I looked at my watch _0957. 'Ok about 30 minutes until the first guests arrive, ugh this is going to be such a bloody long day.' _ I thought as Weiss re-entered her father's study. Amber looked over to me in amazement "Ok, do I even want to know how you managed to convince her to go back in there?" I chuckled lightly, knowing full well the shit storm that was brewing "No you do not, but you'll find out soon enough." I replied flatly, not wanting to hint at what Weiss was going to do.

10 minutes later after the Schnee family had emerged from the study and Mr Schnee had left to go inspect the party area, to ensure it was up to his expectations the Schnee sisters proceeded out to another one of the castle gardens, this one filled with White Roses in order to have some sister time. Amber and I kept our distance, deciding to let the sisters have their privacy. "You know they really love each other, but their father keeps trying to play them off against each other, wedge them apart... sad thing is it works at times" Amber said out of the blue, disgust evident in her voice. I turned to Amber in surprise, surprised that I wasn't the only one here who didn't agree with Mr Schnee's attempts at parenting. "Weiss doesn't speak much to me... So I don't really know anything of her relationship with her sister." I replied, kinda embarrassed I hadn't tried harder to learn more about the Heiress, not bothering for months to look further than the surface. "Well Winter is much more open with her emotions than Weiss is, we've had many discussions about her family and the way Mr Schnee is trying to make Weiss bend to his vision for her and how Winter is vehemently against it." Amber continued on, staring out towards the sisters who were deep in conversation.

"Well I've decided to ensure that Weiss doesn't bend to his will and manipulations... I've seen the dark side of the SDC and I don't think it would damage Weiss mentally to have anything to do with those things." I replied determinedly. Amber turned to look at me "That makes it sound as though you're helping the Heiress for your own personal redemption for the things you've done rather than genuinely looking after her interests." came the accusing reply. I knew that Amber was correct, I was engaging in this mini war against Mr Schnee to spite him for his slavery practices which I took part in, which my conscience made me suffer for every time i closed my eyes. purely selfish reasons that just happened to have a selfless outcome. I didn't reply, merely shrugging and checking the time _1026, _turning to Amber "It is time to get them out to the party area, guests will be arriving momentarily." I said flatly, not even bothering to hide the fact I was only saying this to get out of discussing my own emotions and past. I strode into the garden and when the sisters looked at me, looking slightly cross that I had intruded their limited sister time I merely tapped my watch to get my message across before turning on my heel and walking out, not a single word spoken.

The garden party went about as smoothly as I could expect, spending the best part of 6 hours resisting the urge to go on a killing spree after being treated like a mere servant and drink fetcher rather than the skilled combatant and bodyguard I was by egotistical old rich people with superiority complexes. Only Weiss, Winter and the surprisingly humble Pyrrha Nikos treated me as an equal and did their best to keep me out of the sights of the more hostile party guests. Needless to say I was glad when 4:30pm struck and the guests began leaving to go and prepare for tonight's singing performances, headlined of course by Weiss. I made my way backstage as Weiss was preparing, just to make sure she was ok and to find out if she was still going through with the plan. I knocked on her change room door "Weiss, It's Simon. May I enter?" I asked politely. upon hearing a call of approval from the Heiress I entered, to see Weiss in her usual outfit of a White blue bolero jacket over a similarly coloured thigh-length dress with a piece of black lace making up the neckline of the dress, but this time she had no makeup on, the scar over her left eye on show for all to see, which in my opinion only enhanced her beauty... it was anything but an embarrassment. "You ready? you're up next I think." I said simply, hoping I'll have enough time to get back to my vantage point overlooking the crowd to watch Mr Schnee rage at seeing his daughter upstage his plans. "Yeah, I' am ready. Also Simon, thank-you so much for everything." came Weiss' reply, genuine appreciation in it. This made me freeze, It had actually been a very long time since anyone showed genuine appreciation for anything I had done for them. "You're welcome Weiss. I'll leave you to get ready... good luck and blow them away." I said quickly exiting the room.

I managed to get to my look out post just as the previous singer was leaving the stage I had gotten a hold of a set of binoculars and found Mr Schnee in the crowd sitting with Winter, I smirked with anticipation at seeing his reaction when Weiss sings the song of her choice. I heard the announcers welcome Weiss out onto the stage. I heard a piano begin playing softly and slowly and then came the lyrics, softly almost angel like, it was the most beautiful voice I'd ever heard:  
_**Mirror, tell me something,  
Tell me who's the loneliest of all?**__  
_I saw Mr Schnee's face change from one of anticipation to confusion to pure fury all in the space of a few seconds, which pleased me greatly _'that's right Mr Schnee... Weiss doesn't play by your rules anymore'_ I thought triumphantly._  
__**Mirror, tell me something,  
Tell me who's the loneliest of all?  
Fear of what's inside of me,  
Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?  
**_As I heard this I turned my head from Mr Schnee to Weiss singing on stage, my heart beginning to ache, realising just how broken inside Weiss was, just how fragile her outer facade was.. just how fragile mine was._**  
Mirror, mirror, what's behind you?  
Save me from the things I see!  
I can keep it from the world,  
Why won't you let me hide from me?  
**__'If only you could hide from yourself Weiss... I tried, and I failed' _I thought as I felt the hot tears begin to roll down my cheeks for the first time in what seemed like years, I felt every little crack in my emotional armour become a gaping hole through which raw pent up emotion that I had been hiding from ever since my injury came flowing._**  
Mirror, mirror, tell me something,  
Who's the loneliest of all?**_

I'm the loneliest of all

By this time every bit of emotional armour I wore was in shambles and I retreated from my secluded overwatch position into the nearest bathroom to wash my face and try and regain my composure before anyone saw me. After basically drowning myself in the basin I looked myself in the mirror, I looked into my eyes and saw just how distant and empty yet also how full they were, empty of emotion and happiness but full of painful memories of kids being hauled off to the SSB, Faunus meeting my blades or my guns, the photo of Blake that sat deep in my field pack. At the mere thought of that poor orphaned girl I smashed my gauntleted hand into the mirror, smashing it to pieces, but my anger, my hurt and my fear weren't done yet, I continued to smash the wall, leaving large cracks and holes in it. Finally my emotions spent I managed to reign back control and rearranged myself so I looked presentable before heading back stage once more. I reached Weiss' change room and knocked on the door "We-Weis are you in there?" I managed to choke out. I heard footsteps come up to the other side of the door "Can you come back later Simon, I-I just need a moment alone." Came the choked up reply. _'Guess we're both only holding ourselves together by a thread.' _I thought as I leaned against the door, using all my concentration to etch my usual impassive, unreadable look over my face.

Several silent minutes passed, I knew Weiss was right on the other side of the door due to the choked sobs that sometimes escaped now and again. Over and over I replayed scenes in my head of the things I had done.. what disgusted me more than actually doing those things was the lack of empathy, remorse or regret I had felt at the time for what I had done, which I was only feeling now, months if not years later... way too late to make amends, all I could do was ensure that others didn't follow the path who did and protect those who were targeted by those who did go down that dark path. Eventually the door unlocked and out came Weiss who looked like she had been to hell and back, but was now composed and ready to face her father. "When you confront him I'll be nearby, just remember you aren't alone in this Snowflake" I whispered as I saw Winter and Mr Schnee coming backstage, the later of the two looking positively furious. "We will discuss tonight's events when we return home, now please make your way to the limo." Came the seething command from Mr Schnee. Weiss nodded and fell in obediently behind her father, turning back to me I gave her a thumbs up and a supportive nod before I made my way out towards the guard vehicles to make my way back, I'll have to see how the 'discussion' went tomorrow morning when I planned to give Weiss my journal... let her judge for herself her companies and my actions.

**The Next Day: Simon's PoV:**

I spent all the previous night putting the finishing touches on my journal including a letter for Weiss, So I was extremely dependant on caffeine this morning, which did not leave me in a very good mood... so Magenta was lucky she refrained from trying to chew me out or even speak to me. As I walked to the castle I had my journal and letter hidden in a satchel that went with my armour. I met Weiss as usual, she looked very stressed, but had a quiet confidence about her that hadn't been present before especially when her father was at the estate. _'Guess she came off on top during last night's discussion then.' _ I thought as I followed her to her morning tutorials, during which I slipped out of the room and placed the journal and letter on her bed before slipping back into the tutorial. I felt a massive weight come off me... I felt guilt gush away now that I ensured that the horrid deeds of the SDC, Atlesian Arms, The White Fang, The Black Fist and of myself will be laid out to bare. I was ready and willing to face atonement for my actions, to be judged for them. I may never be able to forgive myself entirely for what I had done in the Fist, but slowly I was coming to terms with it.

**That Night: Weiss' PoV:**

As I retired to my room after the days classes to prepare for my daily singing lessons, I worried slightly for Simon. Something had been eating at him for some time and it was beginning to affect his mood and his ability in combat, for today I beat him in every duel we fought during our training which is something that had not happened before. Despite the fact he always made inappropriate remarks and had an infuriating tendency to call me _Snowflake. _He had earned my respect as a combatant, my trust as a bodyguard and my care as a friend, three things I didn't give lightly. As I entered my room I saw an unfamiliar journal and a letter accompanying it. I looked curiously at it and picked up the letter:

_To Snowflake_

_For months I have hidden from what I had become, from what I had done. But no more will I hide and no more shall I run from my past. Enclosed in my journal is a full account of my operations with the Black Fist including missions done under orders of the SDC Special Security Bureau (SSB). I give you access to these files because you need to know what happens when you allow others to manipulate them. Your father may not be a bad man at heart... but the actions of his company done with or without his knowledge are reprehensible, and I was a part of those actions. I hope you are able to read these files and be the better person in all of this and ensure when you one day take over the SDC you are able to make amends for these actions and ensure that another generation of people aren't destroyed by the conflicts and practices that the SSB are infamous for._

_-Simon_

_P.s: The code word for the Journal's lock is "Gastropod"_

I looked to the Journal, not entirely sure I wanted to know in detail what the SSB had done, or what Simon had done for that matter... I knew that the SSB and my body guard had operated in some very morally grey areas but I had never found out specifics. I drew in a breath, knowing I was about to find out things that my father went to great lengths to keep hidden. I opened up the journal and began to read, as I read I came to realise exactly how large a burden that Simon had shouldered... While I couldn't condone the things he did, I understood them and it really put into context why he didn't want to see me simply give up and me moulded or manipulated by my father into an Heiress who will just continue his methods and practices, even if I didn't want to believe what I was reading. I knew that below the front he put up to everyone, including me was a small child who didn't understand what had happened to him and just wanted to make the pain and the memories go away. I resolved to help him as best I could, it was the least I could do for the help he was giving me.

**A/N: **I hope you all are ok after reading this... It kinda hit me in a soft spot a couple times writing this. This is probably the most emotional piece of writing I have ever written and I hope I did a good job of fleshing out both Simon and Weiss with regards to their mental and emotional fragilities from what their lives have subjected them to. I know these chapters are crazy long... but deep emotional writing tends to chew up words pretty quick. Thankfully the chapters to come are substantially shorter. As always I appreciate any feedback that people have... especially advice on writing main characters such as Weiss or any other comments or questions that you all may have... I' am only too happy to answer. -CC Signing off


	18. New Beginnings

**A/N:** A quick reminder that the first chapter of the sequel will be uploaded immediately after this chapter is uploaded, so there is 0 wait between finishing this and being able to see Simon and Weiss arrive at Beacon. -CC

**Chapter 18: New Beginnings. Simon's PoV:**

It was Sunday today and I had decided to take a day off, Weiss could survive one day without me and to be honest I needed the time alone, in the week since I had given her my journal I had felt the burning, judgemental gazes burning through me from the Heiress, but she never said a single word about it whatsoever which unnerved me even more than having her say straight up her opinions. I had tried to decipher her thoughts and feelings towards the contents of my journal but the Heiress had been impassive, unreadable and it had driven around the bend, so here I was laying beneath a tree in a secluded corner of the castle grounds trying to calm myself down and work out my next course of action, but I ended up dozing off in the summer sun, strangely for once not being assaulted by nightmarish memories. I was jolted from my dozing by a weight hitting my chest, opening my eyes I saw my journal had been dumped onto me and a very disgruntled Weiss standing over me. "Where have you been? you didn't report to your post this morning, such slackness!" The Heiress berated me. I sat up and leaned against the tree "I just needed a day off to process things in my mind, try and make sense of where I' am and where I want to go... I have no intention of staying in your companies service after my services as your body guard are needed." I replied candidly, not caring to keep secrets or lie.

"Well I needed to talk to you, but I guess here is probably a better place to do so away from prying ears or eyes. I read your journal from cover to cover... It was painful to say the least, I know you're coming apart with guilt and remorse for what you've done. I want you to know I don't hold what you've done against you one bit... You were young and scared and just wanted to live, so you didn't think... you obeyed. You are a good person though... the fact you show remorse and regret is proof of that. We both have inner demons and fragilities... you've been here for me so now I'll be here for you so you no longer need to hide from your feelings. Now for the love of dust, please drag your sorry self out of the dark pit you've thrown yourself in: it is affecting your combat skills and makes you an even less pleasant to be around than you already are." Came Weiss' attempt at light hearted admonishment to try and kick me back into my usual smartass attitude. I couldn't help but smirk at seeing the pitiful attempts at humour Weiss undertook for me "I' am very pleasant company... it just isn't my fault if you can't appreciate my sense of humour." I replied, weakly chuckling, my mind slowly processing the fact that for the first time since I had been at the police station in Vale someone had offered to support me emotionally and help put me back together, no one in the Fist supported each other psychologically or emotionally.. you were to deal with your own mind on your own and hide your pain behind bravado and humour when amongst your fellow troops just like Shauno, Kale, Gregory and myself always did.

I dragged myself up, and faced the Heiress a small smile creeping across my face from the immense gift that Weiss had bestowed upon me. Acting on absolute impulse and an overflow of appreciation to Weiss I lunged forward and enveloped her in a bear hug. "Thank-you Weiss, that means the world to me!" I whispered. I heard a muffled squeal from the Heiress who hadn't been expecting such a display of appreciation from me due to neither of us really being the hugging type. "Simon what are you doing? This is both highly inappropriate and you're crushing my ribs!" Weiss said, not sounding to happy at the sudden embrace. I regained my senses and slowly let go, both of us slightly blushing due to the fact neither of us really had been hugged a lot in our lives. "Ok, I'll let you get away with that one, just don't do it again. Now what becomes of this Journal?" Weiss asked, looking down at the book laying in the grass. "I'll be keeping it, that is my redemption, my way to wipe my slate clean." I replied taking back the journal and placing it in my uniforms satchel. "Right, now that's settled... How about some lunch before we get into our combat training for today, you haven't been trying very hard in the last week and it irks me to beat you so easily, doesn't feel like real victory." Weiss moaned at having been pretty much using me as a training dummy for the last week. At this I chuckled "Oh you want a challenge? Right, well I'll be visiting the armoury and getting some extra goodies to toss your way Snowflake." I replied, my sense of competitiveness coming back as my mood improved _'I really did need that hug, the Heiress really is kinda like a teddy' _I thought humorously as I followed Weiss towards the dining room for a light lunch, because nothing was more bloody annoying than fighting on a stomach after a heavy meal.

Upon reaching the kitchen I grabbed a plate of chicken sandwiches and stood in the kitchens near a TV and flicked the channel in order to find something on the battles between Ironwood's Division, the White Fang and the Black Fist. Finding one I stopped changing channels and watched, ignoring the bitching from the kitchen staff who had been watching the sports channel.

_The latest reports from the Atlesian Highlands are not good: Despite being able to break up the majority of the Black Fist's 6 large regimental formations, the human supremacist organisation seems to have adopted the same tactics of the White Fang in utilising small 30-50 man sized units fully autonomous of any higher command supported by the human populace in their Area. This has led to a massive spate of roadside bombings, sniper attacks and raids on military armouries among Major General Ironwood's 1st Armoured Division "Old Ironsides". There are also reports that teams of elite Black Fist operatives may have made their way into the other kingdoms to combat the White Fang all across Remnant. This is a severe setback from the news a few months ago that more than 750 members of the Black Fist have deserted their posts and gone into hiding and that the end of the Black Fist was in sight. The White Fang during all of this has been raiding SDC and Atlesian Arms more and more frequently, only this morning the bodies of 3 SDC board members and their families have been found butchered in their homes by White Fang assassins..." _

I switched the TV off, things weren't going well. While Major General Ironwood and his troops and the Black Fist were tearing each other apart, the White Fang was operating with almost impunity and was only getting bolder. _'What in the fuck is the SSB doing to stop this?' _I mentally fumed as I exited the kitchen and re entered the dining area where Weiss sat alone reading one of her textbooks. stood over in a corner, not really wanting to disturb her. I flexed my hands in my gauntlets, ensuring I was ready to spring into action at a moment's notice should anything at all threaten the Heiress. "Ok Simon, I'll meet you in the arena, go grab whatever it was you were going to from the armoury and I'll meet you there." Came Weiss' voice piercing my inner thoughts, I snapped my head to her and smirked "alright Snowflake, prepare to get blown away." I replied and walked away, ignoring Weiss' rant that I started by continuing to call her _Snowflake_. I stopped by my room and changed into my Black Fist forest camo uniform complete with helmet and its accompanying webbing and lightweight plate armour before heading to the armoury and filling as many dust grenades into the pouches on the webbing as I could _'Oh you're really going to get blown away Weiss, you've had it easy this week.' _ I thought chuckling as I made my way to the arena to find Weiss already waiting _Myrtenaster _drawn and pointed towards me I saw her expression change to one of curiosity at seeing me in my full combat uniform rather than just parts of it like I normally did.

"Ready to actually give it your all today and to give me a challenge?" Weiss questioned cockily. I didn't answer, instead I simply reached both my hands into a pouch and withdrew 2 grenades, pulling the pins I pelted Weiss with both of them. The explosives being lobbed towards her caught the Heiress off guard, causing her to flip out of the way as I continued to toss grenades at her, forcing her towards a corner. After I emptied out the first two pouches I withdrew _Umbra Vigilans _and unleashed a hail of Flechettes towards Weiss as I advanced on her, unleashing bursts of fire every few steps as I closed in on the still shell shocked Heiress. I felt the magazine on my weapon empty, I loaded another one from my bandolier and extended the blades to charge in on Weiss, who had been caught out by my change in tactics. She tried to trap me in ice but I dodged it easily, I felt my muscles regaining their old edge and reflexes and my senses sharpened to where they had been on missions with Rum Squad. I charged in quicker than I had been capable of for months and used my staff like a pole vault to flip over Weiss and launch a kick into the back of her knees using the steel cap of my combat boot, her legs buckled and I whirled around and smacked Weiss over the head with my staff to signify a killing blow. I flourished my staff and replaced it to its holder across my back.

"Did you really need to smack me that hard?" Came Weiss whine as she rubbed the sore spot on her head. I laughed at the Heiress "Yes I did, you been smacking me around mercilessly for the last week, I merely decided to return the favour" I managed to reply in between laughs. Weiss looked me up and down in my uniform and shook her head "Why do you keep wearing that gear after all you've done in the organisation that uniform represents? Why not make your own customised combat gear like I did?" Weiss said motioning to her attire. I rolled my eyes at this suggestion "Several reason's Snowflake: I don't associate my uniform with the Black Fist so long as the unit patches I was given to identify myself aren't on there. Besides it has a certain intimidation factor that your outfit doesn't.. I want to scare people, not make a fashion statement." I replied, my old smartass attitude slowly returning. Weiss scowled "Hey, this is not a fashion statement... not entirely anyway!" Weiss retorted defensively. I rolled my eyes again and made my way back over to my starting position and redrew my weapon "Go again?" I said, a competitive glint in my eyes.

**3 Months Later (3 Months before RWBY Vol1 Ep1), Simon's PoV:**

In the last few months Weiss and I's training regime had stepped up significantly, in 1 month representatives from Beacon academy would be here to evaluate Weiss' skill as a combatant and decide whether she was worthy of a spot in the academy, I on the other hand had been organising passage to Vacuo in order to link up with some contacts Kruger had made in the Vacuo militia who had offered me a spot in their Long Range Desert Raider Squadron that fought out in the deserts against dust bandits and outlaws, as well as Grimm. so it was once more unto the breach for me once my tenure as Weiss body guard was up and I had to get my knee in peak condition. Weiss and I had been working on unarmed combat lately, and too be honest, Weiss sucked at it, she may have been agile, but if she got pinned she had nowhere near the strength required to break out of the many chokeholds, head locks, arm bars, leg locks and various other manoeuvres I executed on her. Granted sometimes she could summon glyphs or get a lucky nut shot on me and escape, but it wasn't often. "Ok, enough for tonight Snowflake, I think you're in desperate need of some rest and a cleanup." I said rolling away from the leg lock I had locked the Heiress into. We had been at this for several hours with only short breaks and I was feeling the strain, so no doubt Weiss who had much less endurance than I did was just about ready to keel over. "I think that's a good Idea Simon, I could certainly use the rest." The heiress replied as she dragged herself to her feet without any grace whatsoever.

As we left the arena and made our way to the castle I knew that Mr Schnee was back at the estate for some R&R after having to attend several funerals for more board members and friends (if the cranky old bastard had any) who had been killed during the escalating violence against the over bolder White Fang. the SSB had been hitting the Fang hard when it could find them but more often than not just hit Faunus civilian settlements in retribution attacks. Mr Schnee was in no doubt in a foul mood from the destruction and loss of profits his company was taking due to this war, so instead of parting ways with the Heiress I followed here up to the castle, my gut instinct told me I was going to be needed. Upon reaching the castle I stood with the night watchmen who I recognised as supporting the same ARL team as me, so i stood with him a while and chatted about the latest scores and recruitment by the team while Weiss went inside. We had been standing outside talking for about 45 minutes when I heard it, the sounds of drunken yelling and a glass smashing I looked to the guard and we both bolted inside to the living area where Weiss was huddled in a corner as her father yelled "YOU THINK THIS IS EASY... I' AM TRYING TO RUN A COMPANY AND ENSURE YOU'RE FIT TO LEAD IT... AND HERE YOU ARE WANTING TO THROW IT ALL AWAY FOR SOME ROMANTIC IDEA THAT YOU CAN FIX THE WORLD WITH THAT TOY SWORD YOU TOUT AROUND!" I entered the room just as Mr Schnee throw a crystal tumbler at my charge. I put myself between Weiss and her father, raising my gauntleted hand to block the glass.

"Guards restrain this man! No one gets between me and my children when I' am with them." Mr Schnee growled angrily. I extended my gauntlet's blades "Any man who tries to restrain me dies... and I can cut you all down before you've pumped enough bullets in me to penetrate my Aura. Mr Schnee you take one step closer and I'll pound you to a bloody pulp, no one... not even you harms my charge, she may not defend herself against you but I certainly will... to hell with what you could possibly do to me!" I growled, my Gauntlets blades ready to strike at a moment's notice. "You know you've just signed your own death mark Simon... all it takes is the word from me and nothing can save you!" The drunk Schnee threatened. I laughed right in his face "Death does not scare me and neither do you... If you kill me then I'll welcome death as an old friend, a mercy of sorts for me. But I won't allow you to cause any harm to your daughter, not just for her sake but for yours. You might be a lot of unsavoury things but an abusive father certainly isn't one of them... you'll thank me for this when you're sober, even if I' am dead by then." I said defiantly and took up a boxing stance, blades at the ready. Mr Schnee growled and let loose with another crystal tumbler at me, which I blocked with a gauntlet before storming out of the room ranting and raving about "insubordinate servants and ungrateful daughters." I looked to the other guards who all nodded to me before returning to their posts, a silent accord was reached that I had done what the others all wanted to do but couldn't for one reason or another and they would ensure no harm came to me should Mr Schnee decided to try and end me.

I retracted my gauntlet's blades and turned on my heel to face Weiss, who was still curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, still looking terrified of her father. Our eyes met and I simply nodded to her before holding my hand out to help her up and I escorted her up to her room "I'll be right outside if you need me tonight, I'll make sure your father doesn't disturb you until he is sober." I whispered softly before I closed the door allowing the Heiress some privacy. It was a long night for me, made slightly easier by the coffee brought to me every now and then by other guardsmen who also offered to take over my vigil so I could rest my exhausted frame which I refused, this was a matter of principle for me and I was determined to see it through, to for once do something entirely selfless in protection of another rather than to selfishly destroy others lives. By morning I was dead on my feet, even coffee wasn't energizing me at this point, I heard Weiss stir inside the room _'Ugh now to just get through today and I can sleep, hopefully Weiss lets me skip out on combat today.' _I thought as I saw Commander Magenta and several castle guards and SSB agents who hadn't witnessed last night's events coming up the stairs _'Ok, forget sleep... looks like things are about to get hectic' _I faced the oncoming group and withdrew my battle staff "If we're going to rumble, I suggest somewhere away from the Heiress... she doesn't need to see or hear what comes." I said deadpanned as I set _Umbra Vigilans _to its gun setting. The guards and agents readied their weapons but Magenta held up a hand, "We aren't here to kill you if that's what you're thinking... Mr Schnee would like to see you, however you will need to be disarmed.. and that includes the gauntlets and the 4-inch flick blade in your boot you walking arsenal." Magenta ordered determinedly, for once actually ensuring I was completely disarmed... which made me extremely edgy but I complied nonetheless.

Upon reaching Mr Schnee's study I was let in, I saw a very ashamed looking Mr Schnee who could barely look me in the eye "I'd like to apologise for my conduct last night... I was completely out of line and you were right to put yourself between Weiss and myself." Mr Schnee said, shame dripping in his voice. I honestly had no idea how to react... here I had the most powerful man in Remnant essentially grovelling for my forgiveness. "I do love my daughters, but after the losses of the past months against what's left of the White Fang... I just snapped, and Weiss just happened to be the first person I saw to vent at. What in your opinion should be my way to recompense for what has transpired?" Mr Schnee continued. _'Wow he wants my opinion on this? he really must feel shitty about this.' _I thought as I decided what to say in reply. "If you want my honest opinion... let Weiss pursue her dream of being a huntress without you trying to derail it, she is a gifted combatant and that gift is wasted if she spends her life in a boardroom. Also, keep your distance... let her come to you when she is ready to forgive you." I said flatly, without emotion to the old Schnee patriarch. Mr Schnee nodded slowly, agreeing with my entirely reasonable solution. "Also, do not fear of being slaughtered in your sleep... I' am sober now and realise you were right and I was wrong, that is all Mr Alexander." Mr Schnee said, dismissing me. I exited the room, satisfied with the outcome and returned to my post just in time for Weiss to emerge, looking immaculately perfect as ever except for the distressed look upon her face, which disappeared once she saw me "Well at least my father didn't follow through on his threats against you." She said, obviously relieved that I hadn't met my doom for standing up for her. "I just finished a very productive discussion with him... you now shall have no more attempts to derail your entry into Beacon, so long as you keep up your training regime you'll be fine." I said, stifling a yawn but failing. Weiss rolled her eyes "Go get some sleep you fool... you're useless as a training partner if you're running on empty." I nodded in agreement "Yes ma'am, I'll meet you in the arena this afternoon... be ready, it is more unarmed combat until you're able to break every lock I execute." I said eagerly before retiring to my quarters for some very much needed rest.

**1 Month Later (2 Months before RWBY Vol1 ep1), Simon's PoV:**

"You ready Snowflake? All your training and hard work pays off today... Now let's Show these Beacon reps exactly what it takes to be a huntress." I said encouragingly as I followed the Heiress out to meet the representatives from Beacon. One was a bespectacled a middle-aged man with tousled gray hair and thin brown eyes in a green suit and scarf, walking with the support of a cane. The other was a middle aged blonde woman in a purple cape carrying a scroll and a riding crop of all things. "Weiss Schnee I presume?" The woman asked in a severe, business like tone. Weiss nodded "Yes I' am Weiss, and you must be professor Goodwitch, deputy headmistress of Beacon?" Weiss replied courteously. I kept a few metres back during the introductions, but I couldn't help but notice the curious glances I received from the male, Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon as the introductions were made.

Weiss led us all to the arena and she took her place in the middle, waiting for whatever challenges the professors decided to set her, I waited in a shadowy corner as a spectator. "Miss Schnee, why don't you show us your combat skills against your body guard." Professor Ozpin suggested, his tone and facial expression unreadable. I looked to the older man curiously _'What the hell is this guy playing at?' _I thought as I acquiesced to his request and took my place opposite Weiss, a grenade in each hand from my pouches. "Don't expect me to let you win Weiss, you're going to work hard if you want to beat me today" I said, egging the Heiress into action, She brought up a speed glyph and charged at me, I pulled the pins on the grenades and dropped them at my feet before lunging away from the explosives. Weiss tried to dodge but the speed of her glyph sent her straight into the path of the grenades, she managed to punt one towards me but used her aura to absorb the blast of the other. I rolled out of the way of the other grenade that had been punted towards me before drawing my staff and setting it to its gun mode unleashing dozens of deadly flechette rounds towards the Heiress who was using glyphs to jump around the arena dodging my rounds.

As I expended the last of my magazine I loaded and another one and extended my blades, "Come on Snowflake, Bring it!" I yelled Charging the Heiress, treating this not as a friendly sparing match but as combat, potentially to the death. I charged the Heiress, my staff trailing behind me to bring forward in a devastating slash as I got in range of the Heiress. As I slashed my blade was met by that of _Myrtenaster._ I knew I was both stronger and had longer endurance than Weiss, but she was much more agile especially with the glyphs, so I knew to just draw the match out as long as possible. Weiss and I traded several blows until Weiss managed to get above me with a glyph and launch a kick into the top of my head that sent me reeling _'Oh that was not cool' _I mentally fumed before charging back in, unleashing the full force of my aura to overwhelm Weiss' and push her back towards the corner. As I charged in to try and disarm her, Weiss sped away with her glyphs and unleashed ice attacks towards me and ignited her blade with yellow dust and charged back in, bouncing off several glyphs and landing punishing strikes to me. I set off my time distorting Semblance, slowing the speeding Heiress down, even if only for a moment. But a moment was all I needed as I positioned myself for and landed a massive kick to the Heiress' abdomen as time sped back up which, the force of which was added to as she sped in the direction my foot was coming.

Weiss was sent flying but managed to land on her feet, her face set in a determined look as she summoned several glyphs and shot them towards me, I knew these would restrain me if they hit so I attempted to dodge, unfortunately 2 out of the 5 managed to hit me: around my neck and my dominant left arm which held my weapon. I reached with my free hand to the pouches on my webbing and began tossing every grenade I had to force the heiress to keep her distance , to no avail as she got behind me and held the very sharp point of _Myrtenaster _into the back of my neck. "I win" she whispered simply as she deactivated the glyphs holding me in place. I collapsed my weapon and placed it back into its holder "Good match, you utilised your glyphs a lot more than normal... good work." I congratulated the Heiress, certain that such a combat display had guaranteed her a place in Beacon. I looked over to the professors to see the woman, miss Goodwitch making notes on her scroll, her face unreadably serious, however the headmaster, Ozpin had a curious smirk upon his face as he walked over towards us. "An excellent match Miss Schnee, I can see that you have worked extremely hard at your combat style and use of your semblance a credit to both you and your training partner... I' am sure Miss Goodwitch would agree that you'll make a fine addition to Beacon's Cohort." Ozpin commended Weiss, his tone not giving much away apart from a slight tinge of satisfaction at the display.

Ozpin turned towards his assistant "Glynda, would you mind conducting the interview for Miss Schnee, I would like a word with the young man here." Ozpin said flatly, a curious smirk across his face which both disarmed me and put me on guard. "Come sit with me young man" Ozpin asked of me as Glynda and Weiss exited to conduct Weiss interview. "You have turned up in the most unexpected places Simon Alexander, are you aware just how many man hours and resources had been put into finding you?" Ozpin asked, his tone still giving away nothing. The use of my name caused my jaw to drop "How in Remnant do you know who I' am?" I asked, shocked that he knew who I was. "I' am a man of many sources, I found out about you being here several months ago, which is why I made the trip up to Atlas personally... it isn't every day that you get to meet someone whose been dead for 5 years." came the slightly humorous reply. I was still very put out by this revelation. "Well why come and see me? I' am not worth making the trip." I asked, wondering exactly where this was going. Ozpin stared intently at my uniform and equipment "Well during my digging I came up with some very interesting information, 10 months in service as Miss Schnee's personal body guard, proceeded by 6 months in a hospital and before that nearly 3 and a half years in the Black Fist terror group receiving extensive training and combat experience with a double bladed gun staff named _Vindex Umbra. _You seem to have lived a very colourful yet violent existence while on the run, but I think it is time for you to return home." Ozpin replied, still giving away absolutely nothing.

I shook my head at this "I have no home Ozpin, and I have already made plans for when Weiss leaves my protection." I was getting very tired of this conversation. But Ozpin persisted "Your home is in Vale, no matter how far you run, be it to The Black fist, the White Castle Guards or the Desert Raiders in Vacuo.. you'll never find the closure you seek for what you've done until you return to Vale, return to Exton and come full circle. We all have made mistakes, done things we regret... but you can't run from them, not forever as you're trying to do." Ozpin shot back, his tone gentle but still firm. My eyes went wide with fury and my fists clenched, but I held my anger in. "Ok Ozpin, what would you suggest I do then to help atone for my past?" I asked, actually curious to what this man wanted. Ozpin smirk became slightly larger. "Come to my school. Learn how to become a true huntsman and use your obvious talents for the good of both humanity and Faunus kind, to protect those who are oppressed or threatened in this world, maybe you'll find the answers you seek on how to go forward by no longer being a long dead shadow." Ozpin finally made his pitch.

_'Me a Huntsmen? Well I've heard worse Ideas... but going back to Vale? Can I handle that shock?' _My mind was swimming with so many ideas and 'what ifs' it gave me an almost instant headache, but I knew it was either that or going back into the fray as a soldier... and I knew deep down I certainly wasn't ready to be thrown back into another war. I looked up to Ozpin "Ok, you want me to attend this academy of yours... I can do that, it's better than my other option of being a Vacuo Desert Raider." I accepted the proposal to which Ozpin smiled "I look forward to seeing you attend my academy, I' am sure your training partner will be able to fill you in on most of the details of what will be required." Ozpin said before standing and exiting the arena, no doubt to go and speak with Weiss. I was left sitting in the arena alone _'Vale... It's been so damned long. Wonder if anyone from Exton will even recognise me? What would they think if they ever found out what I've done... What Would Velvet think?' _My mind agonised over this, especially having to eventually confront my old bunny eared friend. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't even notice Weiss re-enter the arena.

"Simon, Professor Ozpin just informed me that he has extended offers to attend Beacon to the both of us. Congratulations are in order I think, you've been accepted into the top academy in all of Remnant!" Weiss said happily as she began to list off its academic and training qualities and facilities. "Weiss, please... stop. It is more than that to me, Vale is where I came from... I had never thought of returning there. To be quite honest I' am scared to go back, the academy is an opportunity to break the shackles of my past, but it also means I may run into people from my past and I don't know if they'll accept me if they ever find out what I've done." I managed to say as I began hyperventilating. Weiss merely looked on before sitting beside me, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Simon, no need to be scared, you won't be there alone... you'll have me there if things ever get overwhelming for you. Now come on, now that I've farewelled the professors lets go grab some lunch, I've got a lot of information on Beacon to give you so that you're prepared." With that began 2 months of intense training and preparation, especially for me seeing as I wasn't really prepared for this eventuality.

**2 Months Later: On Private Schnee Airship heading to Beacon. Simon's PoV:**

I sat back in the luxury leather seat next to Weiss, trying to get some sleep on the flight, but my fear and hatred of flying and heights had me continuously squirming around and fidgeting nervously. "Simon, what is up with you? you have been acting very strangely all trip." Weiss said I turned to face my friend and sighed "I' am not the best flier, years of turbulent trips on Black Fist Bullheads, many times coming under fire has left me with a severe hatred of flying and heights, but I think I'll be calmer now, this airship is certainly comfier and smoother than a Bullhead to fly in." I replied chuckling as I once again shifted position to try and get comfortable. I felt Weiss jab at my shoulder "I haven't seen that on your uniform before?" Weiss asked, just noticing the new shoulder patches consisting of a silhouette of my gun staff standing vertically and my bladed gauntlets crossed diagonally over it that I'd attached to the Velcro tabs on my sleeves. I looked at it and shrugged "Well doing some research, turns out most if not all hunters seem to have some sort of symbol I decided to make one for myself. Now I' am going to try and get some sleep, so I' am not constantly fretting about crashing, wake me up about 30 minutes before we land if you can Weiss." I rolled back onto my side and slowly drifted off _'A whole new beginning awaits me... hopefully this time I can make something worthwhile of myself away from the Fist.' _I thought as I drifted off, dreams of a happier, brighter future lighting up my sleep.

**A/N: **Well it has been one hell of a journey for Simon so far... but this Is only the beginning for him, much more awaits him at Beacon and I hope to see you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. -CC signing off.


	19. Arrival at Beacon

**A/N:** **CC Signing on with a bit of bad news... Due to an unforeseen glitch in the matrix, the sequel to this story seems to have gone missing from the archives and my profile (including my story recovery)... so instead of re-creating the sequel as a separate story, I shall just continue to add the new chapters to **_**From Hunted to Hunter.**_**:(**

Now that has been sorted, onto the story :) The next few chapters will mainly follow the Volume 1 canon (with some minor changes by me) but after that it will be into Simon's journey. I hope you all enjoy my work and I always welcome feedback, ideas, comments or questions. -CC

**Chapter 19: Arrival at Beacon, Aboard SDC private Airship. Simon's PoV:**

I felt someone shaking my shoulder and I awoke from my slumber "We're just about to land at Beacon, you got time to freshen up and grab a bite to eat in the galley before we land, I don't know what to expect when we land so be prepared." Came the voice of my travelling companion and friend Weiss Schnee whom I had been serving as body guard to for 1 tumultuous year before being offered a place at Beacon by the headmaster, Professor Ozpin. "Right, Thanks Snowflake, If I ever fly again... I'd hope it's on this thing, it is a much less painful experience than flying on Bullheads." I replied, getting up and heading to another compartment, once again ignoring Weiss' rant about that "atrocious nickname", _'I wonder if she will ever realise I only call her that because it infuriates her' _I thought to myself chuckling as I reached the bath room and splashed some water on my face, drying off I traced the double facial scars running down the right side of my face, inflicted 2 years ago by a fork tipped sword wielded by a man named Schwarzer who had killed two police officers protecting me after the White Fang murdered my parents. I pushed those memories aside, I was determined to not allow my past rule me, I had to keep my focus in the here and now. I felt a little dizzy as the airship rocked during descent _'ugh I hate turbulence... keep it together Simmo, don't wanna throw up on your first day of school. heh, school... Been a long time since I been to one of them, this ought to get interesting' _I thought as I rearranged and tidied the camouflage uniform I was on that had gotten messed up during my sleep.

heading back into the cabin having decided to forgo a snack lest I get airsick during landing. I saw Weiss preparing to disembark "You excited Simon? The next four years learning how to slay Grimm and protect Remnant all away from the oppressive gaze of my father and his staff, I can't wait to show them all just what I can do when I send them perfect report cards and let them see exactly who I' am as more than an Heiress." Weiss said excitedly to which I merely rolled my eyes and smiled "I must admit it will be nice to be away from daily screaming sessions with Commander Magenta, to be able to sleep until after the sun rises instead of being rudely awoken at 3:45am every morning while a privileged few got to sleep in." I replied jokingly which earned me a scowl from the Heiress. "Hey, I resent that remark!" She whined and I simply laughed as we began to make our way towards the exit of the airship. As the ship landed Weiss began supervising the unloading of her luggage by a group of SDC staff, doing none of the actual heavy lifting herself.

_'Oh Weiss, how are you going to survive four years without the staffers here to do your heavy lifting, what is even in half of the bags you brought with you?'_ I thought as I picked up my own gear consisting of my webbing this time loaded with its intended survival and combat gear instead of just stuffed full of dust grenades, an additional bandolier that held my primary weapon (A Double bladed battle staff that doubled over as a waist fired flechette gun named _Umbra Vigilans_) and 5 additional magazines for it. As well as a set of armoured gauntlets that featured retractable blades (created from the remains of my original weapon that had been destroyed in combat) a field pack topped with a rolled up swag and two additional travel bags loaded with personal items, clothes and ammo and tools for maintenance of my equipment, I looked and felt like a bloody pack mule by the end of it, but I refused to make the staffers carry any of my gear. As I walked out of the cargo bay, suddenly regretting my decision not to dump my gear off with the staffers I saw Weiss walking towards the academy ahead of a trolley containing what looked to be the consignment of dust she had brought with her. I was about to jog forward to catch up when out of nowhere some little cloaked girl who looked far too young to be here tripped and knocked all of the boxes off the trolley. I stopped running and got out my scroll to film the shit storm that Weiss was about to unleash upon this poor girl.

I managed to start filming just as Weiss stood over the cloaked girl and began lecturing her about what she about how dangerous and valuable the contents of the dust cases were... insults such as "Dolt" and "Brain-dead" were used. I noticed Weiss shaking a dust vile that had a loose lid causing dust to get in the younger girls nose. _'Oh my this is going to be so hilarious if that stuff goes off', _my thought was brought to reality a moment later when a mini explosion rocked the courtyard leaving a decent sized crater in the ground, I managed to keep my scroll filming the scene, but by this time I was just laughing hysterically, trying my best not to double over with all the gear loaded onto me. I continued laughing as Weiss kept berating this poor little girl who for the most part just looked out of her depth, until towards the end she grew some spine and arced up at the Heiress, this just caused me to laugh even more, wondering how long until weapons got drawn, thankfully a 3rd girl managed to defuse the situation by correcting the cloaked girl on the fact that Weiss was an _Heiress _rather than a _Princess._ This 3rd girl whom I could only see from behind from where I was standing looked familiar somehow, but I couldn't quite figure it out. Things suddenly took a turn for the worse when the black haired girl began insulting the SDC's business tactics especially with regards to its labour force, which understandably Weiss got offended over, I on the other hand felt a slight pang of guilt. _'Not even here 10 minutes and already being reminded of that shit' _I lamented.

I saw Weiss storm off in a huff as the SDC staffers began packing the dust cases back onto the trolley, _'ah well... at least I haven't made any enemies like Weiss has yet.' _I thought as I tried to bring my laughter back under control before I made my way towards the school buildings. I saw the little cloaked girl walk off with a scruffy looking blond boy who had been kind enough to help her up after she slumped back to the ground _'Good to know that helping strangers is something people do.' _I thought to myself as I lugged my gear over to the SDC staffers to leave most of it with them having decided I preferred not being a pack mule, because I was carrying nearly my own body weight in weapons, ammo and belongings which was quickly straining my shoulders and my knee to carry it all. Taking only my weapon, its bandolier and my webbing I strolled off the direction that Weiss had stormed off in. Eventually I reached a large hall that contained most of Beacon's students for some sort of introductory speech I guessed, rather than try to go see Weiss, who from what I could see was tearing into that poor cloaked girl again I made my way to a comfortable shadowy corner to stand in and lean against the wall order to watch the proceedings. As I watched Weiss wave a SDC safety manual in the girls face I heard a voice beside me.

"So I' am not the only one who prefers to watch things from the shadows." I recognised the voice, I turned to face the raven haired girl, only to be confronted with a face I had never wanted to see, a face that adorned a photo of a father/daughter pair that I kept in my field pack that I had taken from the body of a White Fang soldier I had killed named Schwarzer Belladonna. In front of me stood his daughter Blake Belladonna, even though her black cat ears were hidden underneath a bow I recognised the golden eyes immediately from the photo that I had long since memorised. I managed to keep my composure and keep my face impassive... barely. "I prefer the shadows and the peace and anonymity it gives me to allow me to observe others." I replied, turning back to the crowd and leaning against the post, every never and muscle in my body on edge. _'Play it cool Simon... don't let on that you know anything about her' _My mind commanded as I steadied myself, before any reply could come from the Faunus in disguise I heard a speaker come to life and Professor Ozpin stood on the stage with Professor Goodwitch. _'Thank fuck, saved by the principal' _I thought as I focused my attention on him.

"I'll...keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills-and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose-direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With that he left and Professor Goodwitch stepped forward and said that initiation was tomorrow and that for tonight we were to bed in the academy's ballroom. _'Well something's eating at the headmaster... and what bodes ill for him, bodes ill for us' _I groaned mentally as I made my way to the exit of the hall and waited for Weiss.

Once the Heiress walked out i strolled up beside her "So how's your first day going, you know apart from being exploded?" I asked giving a half hearted chuckle, doing my best to hide the shock I was feeling at seeing Blake at Beacon. Weiss growled and stood in front of me "We are not going to mention what happened with that immature dolt Ruby again... ever!" Her face flushing redder than the girls cloak. I simply laughed "So you got the girls name... going to work on getting her scroll frequency next Snowflake?" I knew I was asking to get impaled on _Myrtenaster _but this was simply too good an opportunity and being a smartass to pass up. I didn't think it was possible but Weiss went even redder, the Heiress tried to yell and berate me but nothing came out of her mouth, I had literally angered her to the point she couldn't even speak. Weiss stormed off and left me there almost choking on my own laughter _'Oh she is going to absolutely flip the hell out when she finds out I got that on film'_. I chuckled before deciding to do some exploring of the grounds while it was still light out. I didn't exactly want to go to the ballroom yet due to the chance that Blake might have been there.

As evening fell I felt familiar enough with the grounds to be able to navigate it successfully so I made my way to where my gear had been stored to grab a swag and a change of clothes to sleep in, combat gear was not comfortable sleeping attire. I had to leave my weapons in a locker room, which had put me into a stressed out mood, despite being adept at unarmed combat... I tended to get very antsy when unarmed due to the last time I went anywhere without a weapon I was beat to within an inch of my life by a gang of thugs. This was compounded by paranoia of Blake being here to track me and kill me. As I entered the ballroom, my swag slung over my back, eventually picking out a secluded corner from which no one could sneak up on me and with a view of the whole room I rolled out the swag and laid down on the thin mattress contained within it. I saw a lot of the guys in the room rough housing and generally horsing about without a care in the world, part of me wanted to join them... but I decided against it lest I accidentally injured their prides and made enemies, especially If I had to be on the same team as them. looking elsewhere I saw Blake also sitting in a corner, engrossed in a book... or at least trying to be, she was having some difficulty due to the cloaked girl, Ruby and another girl, this one a nice looking Blonde harassing her.

I kept watching on, both apprehensively as to why she was here and amused at her obvious annoyance at the girls standing in front of her. I couldn't hear their voices over the sound of nearby boys engaging in wrestling matches but I saw the blonde bear hug Ruby which ended up in a fight. Quickly scanning I saw Weiss making her way over to the trio _'Oh this ought to be good' _I watched closely as Weiss' hushed yelling could be heard, I saw the blonde ready herself to a fight with Weiss before Ruby hushed them all and tried to defuse the sight, I watched this amusedly before a pillow flew into my face, I saw a group of boys who had been wrestling the night before chuckling at me, I tossed it back, scoring a direct hit on a scrawny kid with sand coloured hair. I rolled my eyes and went to lay back down, only to instead have the same pillow chucked back at me. Growling I stood and marched over to the group of boys "I'll say this once, toss another pillow at me, and I'll beat to a bloody pulp whoever threw it." I threatened, my eyes fixed on the sandy haired boy who shrugged and stared back, unafraid of my threats. "Well stop ogling my friend Yang or her sister Ruby and you won't have a problem with us. I was a bit taken aback by this accusation, I rolled my eyes "I wasn't ogling your friend or her sister thank-you very much, so get your facts straight before making accusations." I retorted.

"Oh so you're ogling the black haired girl, she really is quite the looker" One of the other boys shot back at me, I growled and clenched my fists before diving into a tackle against the offender, rolling over him and ensuring he remained on his back I executed an arm bar on the kid, applying the maximum pressure I could without snapping anything or otherwise injuring the boy. The rest of the group all jumped me, and we ended up a wild pile of swinging fists and legs, we were quickly joined by other boys looking to have a good scrap to practice for whatever tomorrow brings. Eventually all but 2 or 3 boys were involved and most of the girls were watching on as we beat each other to a bloody pulp. I ended up against the scrawny sandy haired boy, tumbling across the ground as we laid several punches into each other. After about 5 minutes of all out brawls, the fights began dissipating as all the pent up ego's and tensions were released, I eventually pushed the scrawny kid away and scrambled my way back to my swag. I noticed a blinking green light on my scroll indicating a message, opening I saw it was from Weiss

_Was it really needed to begin an all out brawl on our first night at Beacon? I need my sleep and you boys are cutting into it! Stop horse playing and get some sleep or so help me...!_

I chuckled and decided I better not notch up a 3rd strike on Weiss' shit list tonight... or I might actually need to make an apology, so I simply laid down and tried to get as much sleep as I could between fretting about not being armed and paranoia about Blake trying to kill me.

I awoke early the next morning, most people were still asleep... a habit of 12 months as a body guard. So instead of laying awkwardly in my swag I packed my gear up as silently as I could and slunk out of the ballroom towards the locker room where my gear had been stored until I was assigned a team and a dorm, changing into a T-shirt and a pair of football shorts I went on nice long jog around the campus as the sun rose, it was good to be alone for a bit after being in such a crowded environment for so long, even better to be away from Blake, anytime she was near I felt like I was about to get a sword through my back. After about 5km I found myself back in the locker rooms, where I proceeded to shower and change into my combat uniform before getting some breakfast with Weiss once the sleepy head finally woke up.

"So did you get enough beauty sleep Snowflake? Or did the big burly boys keep you up all night?" I asked jokingly, to which Weiss replied by trying to impale my hand with a fork. "Not in the mood... first that red dolt and her sister, then tall, blond and scraggly... I don't need you terrorising me as well!" She growled in warning, I heeded the implied warning.  
"Wow sounds like you've had a rough first day, guess that was to be expected given that the people here aren't going to be obedient to your every whim like the castle staff" I said, mentally adding on _'At least no one here is a potential assassin here to kill you'._ Weiss seemed to pick up that something was off about me "I know something's the matter Simon... so what's up? You still worried about being back in Vale?" The Heiress asked with genuine concern.  
"Yeah that's it... just a little overwhelming." I said, lying about the real reason, not wanting to worry my friend. Weiss nodded slowly, obviously slightly sceptical of my reasoning, but decided not to pursue it. "Say Simon, have you given any thought to teams?" Weiss asked, obviously hoping I'd agree to be on her team. I shrugged "I don't know how they're sorting out the teams but I'll try to end up on your team if it's possible. But if not, I' am sure we'll still see a lot of each other during the next four years." I replied noncommittally before rising to go collect the rest of my combat gear.

In the locker rooms I fitted on my elbow and knee pads, webbing as well as my gauntlets and the bandolier containing my gun staff that slung diagonally across my back top end over my left shoulder. Looking around I saw Weiss trying to convince the Mistral Tournament winner Pyrrha Nikos to join forces _'Wow Weiss, you really are trying to rig the system... it is going to backfire big time for you' _I thought as I sat down to give my gun staff _Umbra Vigilans _a quick clean to ensure the barrel or action doesn't jam when I need it and to sharpen the 45cm blades that extended from each end of the 90cm long staff inscribed with a quote. Deciding I was ready I tossed one last glance to see the blond boy I had seen Ruby walking around with yesterday hitting on Weiss and being pinned to a locker by a javelin fired by Pyrrha _'HA! If he keeps that up this will be an entertaining year for me, seeing Weiss get furious at other people that aren't me is always good.' _I thought before I walked out and made my way towards the initiation start point at the cliff glad that I hadn't seen Blake or those annoying boys from last night so far.

Standing on the cliff were several platforms on the ground where each of the 40 first year students were lined up each on a platform. I looked around and tried to size up possible team mates for me _'Ugh if I get some asshole this is going to be a VERY long 4 years' _I groaned mentally as I limbered up my muscles. I saw Ozpin and professor Goodwitch standing near the edge of the cliff, Ozpin stepped forward and began to address us all. "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." After this Professor Goodwitch looked up from her scroll to look at us "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... Today" Ozpin once again took over  
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." At this my jaw dropped _'That is the most bullshit way of sorting anything out I have ever heard and I was in a terror group for 3 years!' _I mentally fumed at this selection process.

As I was still mentally cursing the team selection process I heard the task of getting some sort of relic with your partner and making your way back to the cliff. "Good! Now, take your positions" came the final orders from Ozpin, I wondered what he meant by that, at least I did until I saw several of the platforms begin to jump up, propelling the students standing on them into the air and towards the forest. At This my eyes Widened as I realised that only 1 person was to be launched before me. Quickly I extended the blades on my Gauntlets, feeling that they would be more useful in this than my gun staff. _'Ugh i' am definitely regretting the 2nd serving of breakfast I had' _I managed to think before I heard the platform under me click and launch me into the air "**FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU OZPIN!**" I screamed as I was launched towards the Emerald Forest and into my first test at Beacon Academy.

**A/N: **CC here again, just wanting to say that Chapter 2 of my collaboration story with **Blue Hurricane **entitled _"Mercenaries and Insurgents" _Has just been uploaded under Hurricane's profile... so check it out! I hope you've all enjoyed Simon's first taste of Beacon academy... I welcome all feedback so please don't hesitate to make a comment, suggestion or ask a question! -CC Signing off.


	20. Initiation

**A/N: **That Finale... what did everyone else think? I loved it... especially seeing Coco's motherfucking Gatling gun! though I' am kinda peeved we didn't see Velvet's weapon... Monty you tease! So we've met Yang's mum and Adam has made his return... all in all Volume three is going to be epic I think!

Now onto Simon's Initiation... I' am sorry this chapter took a while, I have spent a little time tweaking the events and who will ultimately join Simon on his journey through Beacon... As Always I hope you Enjoy reading what I write as much as I enjoy writing it all for you. -CC.

**Chapter 20: Initiation, The Emerald Forest. Simon's PoV:**

_'I swear if i ever get a hold of Ozpin I' am going to bash his brains in with that cane of his' _I swore mentally as I flew through the air, my stomach churning and my severe hate of heights and flying getting greater every moment. _'Ok so how in bloody fuck am I going to land this? _I tried to figure this out on the fly, Seeing a very tall tree I decided to become a trapeze artist: as the branch came up to me I latched on and swung around it a few times to arrest my momentum until I eventually found myself coming to rest on the very thick and very high up branch. After I had emptied my stomach into the forest below I looked around, this branch had a view of just about the entire forest. _'As much as I regret perching myself up so high...this is a good place for some recon' _I thought as I removed a small pair of binoculars and a compass from a pouch in my webbing and looked around to see where other students where ending up and to try and get a bearing on this temple. Looking through the binoculars the first person I saw was of course Weiss, using her glyphs to gracefully leap down to the ground without very much bother at all. _'Bloody show off, she could have left some of them for me the before I went and nearly got myself killed trying to trapeze around a branch at the speed of fucking sound'. _

Deciding to put off berating my friend I looked around once more and saw the Blonde girl, Yang I think her name was, thinking back to before last night's brawl. She was bouncing from tree to tree using cartridges fired from what looked like a set of Gauntlets, _'Yeah that girl is having way to much fun flying around like that... she must be loco.' _I thought as I continued my recon. I saw a flash of red and bronze rush past me, smashing through several trees, including one right next to mine which led to me being showered in splinters "Damn Pyrrha! Stop being a dick to the trees!" I called out after her as she sped through several more trees. _'Meh, didn't make eye contact... guess I' am still on the lookout for a partner, too bad I would have loved to have seen Weiss' face if I turned up with Pyrrha as a partner' _I chuckled at the fury that would have caused. Continuing to look around for a couple minutes I saw an old ruined temple about 3km away _'Well I guess I better get moving, I'll pick up a partner along the way' _I thought as I gingerly jumped from branch to branch, using all my concentration to not let the heights get to me, lest get dizzy and fall.

Managing to get to the bottom without too much damage being done I withdrew my gun staff from its bandolier and set it to its gun mode and began to make my way through the forest, only when I was moving did I realise just how nerve-racking it was to move through hostile areas alone, normally I'd have Lachlan by my side and the marksmen Shauno and Kale watching our backs from some perch they had set up in, but here all I had was myself, even if only temporarily. I kept off the tracks that weaved through the forest and instead opted to move through the bushes, constantly scanning around for either creatures of Grimm or another student, hopefully the later of those options as it had been a very long time since I'd fought Grimm and despite studying them both in the Fist and listening into Weiss' tutors on Grimm, I didn't feel exactly confident to take on some of the larger species. After about 15 minutes of moving silently through the forest I ended up by a small stream where I decided to grab a drink, having already emptied my canteen after my landing to wash the taste of my stomach contents out of my mouth post-landing. As I filled my canteen back up I heard rustling in the bushes across the creek _'And so it begins...' _I mentally sighed as I hefted my gun staff to my hip and let loose into the bushes with about 30-40 flechettes. But instead of hearing the sounds of steel meeting flesh and the howls of dying Grimm, I heard the sound of metal hitting metal and the curses of a girl.

_'Oh fuck, I just shot at another student, I' am never going to hear the end of that one' _I thought to myself as I lowered my weapon and saw this young Faunus girl with floppy dog ears and a tail pop out of the bushes and cross the creek, carrying an axe and a shield and looking very perturbed at me "You really should ask questions first, shoot later when there are other students around soldier boy." She said angrily, however she really was right to be angry, I had unleashed a large salvo of lethal projectiles at her. I rolled my eyes "I' am sorry, that one was entirely my bad. This initiation has just got me a little on edge... So let's put this one behind us ok? Seeing as we will be living and working together for the next 4 years." I said, genuinely apologising, and hoping this wouldn't turn into a grudge. The girl growled at me before sighing "Fine, just.. be more careful of what you shoot at next time, there are 38 other students in this forest with us and I'd hate to be the cause of injuries or deaths of any of them." The girl said as she began to walk into the forest towards the temple, I quickly put my canteen back into its pouch on my webbing and followed along behind this Faunus girl, whose name I just realised I had no idea of. _'Oh I hate you Ozpin and this bullshit way of making teams.' _I once again mentally cursed the headmaster as I silently followed the axe wielder.

We had walked about 1.5km in silence, an extremely awkward silence, I could still feel the anger seething off the girl for the accidental shooting incident. _'Well guess I should probably try to break the ice... It couldn't be harder than it was with Weiss' _I thought to myself as I finally decided this silence had to end before it drove me insane. "The name is Simon by the way... and you are?" I asked clumsily and extremely awkwardly, having not really had to do this whole introduction thing before. The girl turned back to face me, still looking angry at me but her expression did soften a bit without losing its grumpy look "Sienna Reynolds, guess we're partners now. I guess I can overlook your recklessly offensive use of your weapon, just this once." With this she turned around and set off once more and once more I followed _'Great... I get stuck with someone even bitchier and standoffish than Weiss is when she is pissed off' _We couldn't have gone more than 500m when Sienna started sniffing the air and her ears perked up. I looked to my new partner nervously and slowly reached for my gun-staff, "Sienna, What is it?" I whispered, wanting to know what she had sensed. Then I saw it, a massive pillar of smoke and the sounds of burning Beowolves, "Well seems like someone's having a BBQ and never invited us, how rude!" I said chucking at my own joke, Sienna however was still looking about "It's not that... something, closing fast to the right." Sienna said impassively I rolled my eyes and readied my gun-staff and was about to let loose a burst of flechettes when I felt Sienna push the barrel of my weapon down and gave me a stern look about not repeating my earlier mistake.

We both looked to where Sienna had sensed something only for a pack of 6 Ursi and 1 Ursa Major I looked annoyed at Sienna "Ok now we know they are Grimm, now I shoot!" I yelled at her as I unleashed a large volley of flechettes, emptying my current magazine. I didn't take out any but all of them were injured from the lethal metal darts. Loading in another magazine I extended my weapon's blades and charged straight towards the Ursa Major _'take out the leader, the pawns fall easily' _I thought as my weapon clashed with Ursa's claw, I braced against the impact and utilised my Aura in a push with my weapon to make the Ursa lose balance and leave its underbelly exposed, which as I positioned myself to slash at with my weapon was turned to a bloody mess by an explosive round, which missed my head by mere inches. As the Ursa fell I turned to my partner who was holding the end of her axe towards me, a smoking barrel visible, Before I could make any comments to her about watching where she was shooting another Ursa sprung at me, swiping at me with its claws angrily. I managed to spring away out of the danger zone and back closer to my partner as the remaining Ursi surrounded us. "Ok, you got any ideas? Preferably ones that don't involve bullets whizzing past me again!" I asked Sienna as I slashed at an Ursa that got too close, the offending Ursa losing a leg for its troubles. "stick behind me, and be ready to use that gun of yours." Came the reply as Sienna brought her shield to bear to protect against the Ursa attacks. I rolled my eyes "You do realise we are surrounded, this is a terrible plan!" I said exasperatedly.

Deciding to ignore the plan I lunged out towards an Ursa that was behind Sienna which lunged towards me as well, at the last moment I dodged right and bounced off a nearby tree back at the Ursa's exposed side, blade of _Umbra Vigilans _leading my lunge. The Beast howled in pain, but was not defeated yet. It swiped me off of it, my weapon still lodged in its side. I rolled across the ground and extended my gauntlets blades undeterred by how resilient this Ursa was and charged straight back in, ducking under a swipe and launching with all my might an uppercut into the beasts ribcage, followed by a jab with my other bladed gauntlet into the beast's throat and slashed outwards, half-way severing the Ursa's throat.

As the beast fell dead I retrieved my weapon and turned to see Sienna beginning to get overwhelmed by the remaining 5 Ursi, _'Oh shit, I thought she could handle herself... this calls for drastic measures!' _I thought frantically as I withdrew 2 dust grenades from their assigned pouch on my webbing "Sienna think fast!" I yelled as I pulled the pins and tossed the grenades into the middle of the swarm of Ursi, Sienna saw what I had done and lunged up into the air and towards me using blasts from her weapon to control her direction. As I was preparing to lunge behind a tree to escape the shrapnel my grenades would produce when instead I was essentially tackled to the ground by Sienna who raised a bubble around us just as the grenades when off. I saw the grenades explode, 2 of the Ursi caught most of the shrapnel, through the other three also suffered wounds on top of what my flechettes and Sienna's weapons had inflicted.

I also several ball bearings from the grenades hit the bubble Sienna had raised around us _'An interesting semblance, she is a very defence based fighter,' _I observed of my partner as I saw the two most injured Ursa succumb to their wounds, the other three were howling in pain I looked to Sienna "I'll take the one on the left, you go right... we'll regroup for the middle one!" I said competitively, eager to finish this fight, my Aura flaring I charged the left most Ursi, the one that had already lost a leg to my blades, it seemed to recognise me as the culprit for its misery as it roared angrily and arced up on its hind legs to meet me. It swiped with its remaining foreleg which I easily dodged, however what I didn't dodge was its jaws which clamped down on the end of my staff, trying to wrest it from my grasp. Unfortunately for the Ursa it wasn't very smart as It had stuck a 45cm long blade in its mouth. I rammed the blade forward until it emerged from the back of the Ursa's head. As I wrenched my weapon out of the now dead Grimm's mouth I turned to see Sienna in the process of hatcheting her assigned Ursa's head off. We both looked to the third Ursa who had been disorientated by the grenades blast and prepared to race for its scalp. However before either of us could charge it, a Blur of pink, white and orange dashed at the Ursa and mounted it, and began to ride it around like a bucking bull. I looked at this scene then to Sienna who looked just as confused as I did. Eventually this redheaded girl managed to tame the Ursa and control its movements "ONWARD MY NOBLE STEED! WE MUST PICK UP REN THEN OFF TO GET A RELIC!" The redheaded girl sing-songed as She rode the wounded Ursa off into the forest to pick up someone named Ren.

I once again looked to Sienna "I have seen a lot of things in life... but that certainly tops the list for the weirdest" I said incredulously, still sceptical that it had actually happened. Sienna was by this time laughing quite hard which surprised me "So little miss grumpy actually does laugh?" I said condescendingly. Sienna rolled her eyes, still chuckling "Only the most stone cold, humourless person couldn't laugh at that sight... and even then I think it would be a stretch not to, now come on.. we're still about a Kilometre from the temple." Sienna said as she began jogging, her shield and axe still in her hands. _'Oh no, I' am not following anymore!' _I thought and I jogged off and got in front of Sienna and let her be the follower for once. We eventually came to a small knoll overlooking the temple. I withdrew my binoculars to scan the area while Sienna covered my six, I saw Yang and Blake among the temple ruins, this caused my blood to run cold _'It's ok Simon, so long as you can see her, she can't hurt you!' _I kept repeating this over and over until I managed to calm myself. I heard a scream incoming towards the temple, looking up I saw Ruby jumping from a Nevermore _'Oh my... these people really are insane, Ursa riders and now people jumping from Nevermores! What is this a fucking insane asylum?' _I wondered in my head as I saw Jaune come out of nowhere also in midair and knock Ruby into some trees just to the left of Sienna's and mine position.

"Sienna, Please tell me you're seeing this all as well and I' am not just insane?" I ask, beginning to wander about my mental state. "If by seeing this you mean people falling from the sky, that Ursa riding girl just arriving and a Deathstalker arriving, then yeah... I' am seeing this!" came Sienna's incredulous reply. I nodded slowly "I don't know what's worse... imagining all this happening, or having it actually unfold before my eyes... on second thought, it actually happening is way worse!" I replied, answering my own question. It was then that I heard Weiss' scream off in the distance "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME?!" I looked all around for Weiss but couldn't find her on the ground _'Oh my... don't tell me...' _I thought as I scanned the air, finding Weiss of all places holding onto a Nevermore. "holy fuck... even Weiss has gone completely loco!" I muttered aloud as I saw Weiss fall from the Nevermore. I knew I wouldn't be quick enough to get to her, so I could only sit there and hope she could summon a glyph to save herself.Then once more out of nowhere comes a high flying Jaune to catch another falling girl, too bad they fell on him and not for him.

I felt Sienna tap my shoulder "We going to go help them? They seem like they're in trouble!" Sienna asked, basically pleading with me to stop being a spectator in this battle, but I stayed put, not wanting to end up anywhere near Blake unless absolutely required of me even if that did mean going against my instincts to go and help Weiss. "No, let them handle this... they started that fight themselves, they need to finish it themselves, It would negatively affect their grading in this test if we saved them." I said, making up some half assed reason for not wanting to lunge in to the fray. I heard Sienna groan in frustration and mutter something that sounded vaguely like _Coward _but I pushed that accusation out of my head. I continued to watch the scene unfold with Ruby trying to take on the Deathstalker, she got bounced off of the giant Grimm like nothing _'oh shit this won't end well' _I thought as I saw her make a run from the Deathstalker only to get caught up in a feather attack from the Nevermore. I looked to the others in the group, none looked to be within range to save the cloaked scythe wielder. I wanted to look away from the impending doom for Ruby but I hoped that some miracle would happen... and it did in the form of an ice wielding Weiss who froze the Deathstalker's stinger solid.

I looked down the opposite end of the clearing, to find a pack of about 30 Beowolves beginning to make their way towards the ruins "Sienna, I know it isn't as tough a kill as a Deathstalker or Nevermore, but there is a large pack of Beowolves making their way towards the temple, if they make it to the ruins with our fellow students still there, they'll be overwhelmed. So you feel like creating a new target for that pack to give the others some breathing room to deal with the larger Grimm?" I saw Sienna's face light up eagerly at the chance to help out and she immediately readied her axe and shield. "Ok you lead off, keep me covered while I thin their numbers out with my gun-staff." I asked of my partner, crouching behind her to wait for her to move off.

We quickly made our way through the tree line and got beside the pack who hadn't seemed to notice just the 2 of us when compared to the 8 people just a couple hundred metres away. I readied _Umbra Vigilans _and let fly into the exposed sides of the Beowolves with accurate, sustained bursts of about 10 flechettes per burst. I saw at least 10 go down howling in pain from the darts piercing their skin and perforating organs. As my clip emptied I tossed a couple grenades for good measure while I loaded another magazine and extended the blades on my gun-staff. "Ok Simon, You take right, I'll take left this time" Came the polite, yet firm command from Sienna. I rolled my eyes "Suits me just fine, the grenades detonating is our starting gun." I replied as I knelt behind Sienna's shield, once the grenades exploded and I heard ball bearings clatter against Sienna's shield I lunged out into the right flank of the remaining dozen or so Grimm creatures. The first Beowolf I came up against managed to catch me off guard with a pounce that knocked me back and nearly off my feet, but I managed to keep my footing and when the beast came at me again I ducked the claws and threw the Grimm over me and into a tree a couple metres to me left, with it dazed I lunged in and quickly severed its head. The 2nd and 3rd Beowolves fell to sustained bursts of Flechette Rounds. Looking over to Sienna I saw her Bouncing Beowolves off her shield or hacking them to pieces with her axe. I made my way over to her, hand springing over a Beowolf and took up position just behind her and let rip with my gun-staff's gun, once again noting the immense loss of accuracy and round dispersion while firing with the blades extended. "You holding up ok this time? no need for grenades this time I hope!" I said between bursts, Sienna pretended not to hear me, despite the fact I knew she did due to her acute hearing.

Sienna felled the final Beowolf with a blast from her axe's inbuilt gun straight to its face, leaving nothing recognisable as a face. "Ok, I think the others have made their getaway, I suggest getting a relic and getting the fuck back to the cliff before anything else shows up that wants to kill us." I said flatly, as I walked into the temple to see the chess pieces. _'Hmmm what's here that suits me... ah here, The Black Pawn. That certainly fits what I've been for so long.' _I thought in self-loathing as I picked up the piece and turned to my partner "Ok we have what we came for, let's go." I said as I began to jog off towards the cliff we had been launched from, not even bothering to listen to Sienna question as to why I chose the piece that I had. It had been an uneventful jog back to the cliff, until that was we got within sight of the cliff just in time to see Ruby, with the assistance of Weiss' glyphs decapitate the Nevermore. "Ok, now that was something badass there!" I exclaimed in awe as the Nevermore's body tumbled down into the abyss. Ensuring that no other Grimm were about I made my way out into the clearing, Sienna at my side to meet up with the other 4 students still on this side of the collapsed bridge to wait for a pick up back to the academy grounds all of us swapping stories of the events of that day, stories we would be telling for many, many years to come.

**Beacon Main Gallery: Team Announcements: Simon's PoV:**

After having arrived back at the academy grounds we had been brought to the main gallery to have our teams formally announced and us introduced to the rest of the school, so here I was standing with Sienna, The boy I had been brawling with last night with the sandy coloured hair and another girl I had never seen before who had happened to pair up with the boy and grab the other _Black Pawn _piece. We stood silently all obviously sizing each other up and making judgements on their new teammates. The Team before us had just been announced and It was our turn to take centre stage, it was time for me to come back out from the shadows and back from the dead...

**Velvet Scarlatina's PoV:**

I had been standing with my team and the rest of the 2nd year students to see the new first years be introduced to the school having just finished their initiation. I could see the youthful and innocent optimism on their faces as they stood there to be made official students of Beacon, I remembered standing up there next to Yatsuhashi as he, I along with Fox and our leader Coco became team CVFY, so much had happened in a year, I had become so much more adept at dust manipulation and my academic scores were near perfect, I was finally getting myself on track to make my dreams of being a Huntress come true.

I watched the latest group of first years this team had a Faunus girl in it, which made me glad that more and more Faunus got into Beacon every year, Professor Ozpin does so much to ensure equality between humans and Faunus in Beacon. Looking to the others I saw 2 boys and another girl. The girls and one of the boys, scrawny kid with sandy coloured hair all had that innocent, optimistic and determined Aura about them, however the 2nd boy, this one with was clad in a soldiers uniform and armour with severe scars down the right side of his face had a completely different Aura around him: a Jaded, sad and tortured aura who seemed to be troubled by a great many things. _'What in Remnant has happened to you? What secrets hide behind that wall you keep around yourself?' _I thought sympathetically to the young man who now stood on the stage. I heard Professor Ozpin speak up and I saw the members of the team step forward as their name was called "Teal Wolfsbane, Sienna Reynolds" I saw the 2 girls step forward "Nyanza Torres and Simon Alexander. You retrieved the _Black Pawn _pieces, from this day forward you shall work together as team SuNSeT to be lead by Simon Alexander." At this news I think my heart stopped beating for a moment _'Simon? Alive? But, no... it couldn't be him... he has been gone for 5 years!' _My mind tried to make sense of my friends sudden reappearance at Beacon after so long, tried to convince me that it was just another Simon Alexander who happened to be born the same year, however my instincts reminded me that his body had never been found and that standing down on stage was in fact my friend alive and well... And with that realisation came a great many questions.

**A/N: **I hope you all enjoyed this, I decided not to have all of team SNST work together during initiation due to most teams probably not meeting or working together in the way that RWBY and JNPR did during initiation. Please leave a review, hearing from those who take the time to read my Fanfic is always good encouragement and motivation to keep writing.

**Also I shall have the next chapter out sometime today or tomorrow.. so apologies to those that are waiting for more of Simon at Beacon.** -CC Signing off.


	21. An Unwanted Reunion

**A/N:** I know this chapter took a while to make but I've been busy studying for my end of year exams as well as tweaking and experimenting with my characters to try and get them right in my eyes. Now without anymore rambling on my part... onto the story -CC

**Chapter 21:An Unwanted Reunion. 3rd Person PoV:**

As Simon stood up on stage with his team and their names were announced, all of the hushed chatter died instantly and Simon could feel every eye in the hall on him, and with good reason seeing as he was meant to be dead. Simon even heard his own teammates gasp at the revelation of who he was _'Guess this is going to lead to a lot of questions from them and just as many lies from me' _ Simon thought as he began to feel very exposed from the staring and at the first opportunity he exited the stage and the hall in the swiftest walk he could, not bothering to watch the three remaining teams Including Weiss' be formed. _'That was way more intense than I thought it would be' _Simon thought frantically as he began to hyperventilate in response to the piercing gazes he had just endured, unaware that he was being watched, unaware that his return into Vale was about to go to a whole new level of complicated.

"Simon? Is that really you?" Came a choked up voice behind the young staff wielder. Simon turned on his heel, to be confronted with the one person he did not want to see at the current time with his head still overwhelmed by this all. A girl with bunny ears and long brown hair and brown eyes that were currently piercing Simon's very soul. "Velvet?" Was all Simon could manage, his mind going into total meltdown _'This is all way too much... too much' _Simon's mind screamed as his knees began to wobble and he leaned against the wall of the building to support himself. Velvet moved in and propped him up, making sure he didn't fall over. The touch of his old friend sent shockwaves and a spine tingling feeling through his spine that both soothed, frightened and totally overwhelmed the boy. "Yes Simon, it's Velvet. Here take your time and calm yourself." Came her soothing voice, But Simon was anything but calm and his mind told him to just get out of there, get out of the light and return to the shadows of anonymity, even though that was no longer possible but that didn't stop him from trying. As soon as his legs stopped wobbling Simon sprinted off as fast as his legs could carry him. Leaving behind a very distraught Bunny _'Oh Simon... what has this horrible world done to you in these 5 years?' _Velvet wondered to herself as she reflected upon the fact that many scars that marked just about every patch of visible skin as well as the slight limp that Simon ran with. Before Velvet could take off after Simon her team arrived "Velvet Where have you been? You ran off without any explanation and missed the rest of the ceremony, what's gotten into you?" Coco asked, always ensuring the welfare of her teammate. "It's nothing to worry about.. I' am fine Coco... _The same cannot be said for my friend though" _Velvet replied to her teammate, the end bit being muttered under her breath.

**Simon's PoV:**

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, away from those staring eyes and from the memories that seeing Velvet brought back, both the happy memories of a group of innocent kids and the torturous memories of having my family butchered and my childhood destroyed. Eventually I ended up the gardens near the Airship landing pads where I collapsed against a tree and slumped to the ground my mind melting down and everything I had spent years hiding away in the dark spots in my mind so I wouldn't need to confront them came crashing back _'I wasn't ready... I wasn't ready to come out of the shadows and back into the real world. It was a mistake coming here' _I withdrew my canteen from my webbing and splashed some on my face. I sat there for what seemed like hours trying to build the courage to go back, but not being able to face the inevitable questions that would come from everyone, But I can't let anyone know of what I've been through... what I've done, no one except those who were there with me can understand why we did what we did and only Weiss would not judge me for what I was. No one else could find out... Not until I died and my Journal went public.

Then came the biggest problem, which was Blake and anyone else wanting me dead. _'If she is indeed here to kill me, Ozpin has just placed a giant bloody target on my back... from her, The white fang and the Fist. Though those two aren't a problem so long as I' am in the academy grounds, they wouldn't dare attack here.' _My mind reasoned, but it did little to calm me down and I couldn't stop my hand shaking _'Ok, just breathe... get to the gym as soon as... fighting always keeps my mind off that which I don't want to think of.' _ I tried to stand, to go somewhere where I can just vent my feelings on something or someone and be focused on something rather than idle thinking. But my legs refused to obey my commands. I groaned in frustration and instead smacked the back of my head on the tree repeatedly until I felt blood run down the back of my neck, trying to bash away the memories and faces of those I'd killed assaulting my mind.. it was a horrible habit I knew but I couldn't help but try to make it all go away. Eventually all of the emotion spent I managed to calm myself down from my meltdown and stand back up, looking around I noticed it was nearly sunset _'Guess I should go and meet my team... ugh this is off to such a great start' _I though sarcastically as I made my way towards the dorm areas, thinking up answers to any probing questions I maybe asked and thinking up a cover story for what I had been doing these past 5 years as I went.

Eventually I found the first year dorm area, my scroll had been updated with a lock code for our teams dorm as well as class schedules and other administrative files that had to do with being the team leader. When I found the door marked "TEAM SNST" I noted the door marked "TEAM CDRL" across from us before entering my code into our door and opening it. Entering the room I saw three people in the dorm bickering: "I' am not doubting his ability or bravery as a combatant Sienna... I' am just saying how can we depend on him if he cuts and runs the first moment when he is under any type of pressure or scrutiny!" Came the voice of Teal, the 2nd girl on _SNST _Who stood about 6cm shorter than I did with tanned skin and a more curvy build than the petite Sienna. Teal had blonde hair with tips coloured the same as her name. I cleared my throat to announce my arrival which caused Teal to become as white as a ghost I glared at Teal _'She has not made a good first impression by the sounds of it... but neither have I' _I thought closing the door and leaning against the wall beside it.

"Ok, I know I may have ran out as soon as we were off the stage and I apologise for any worry that may have caused any of you. However Teal, you'll find that I' am very dependable in combat and under the pressures related to such activities." I said firmly but without malice, Teal was right about my inability to deal with pressure and problems I couldn't solve by simply killing the cause of it but no way in hell I was going to let her know that. Teal shook her head "Fine, whatever. I' am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But fail us again and you should think long and hard about whether you can handle the burden of being a leader." Teal shot at me, her tone filled with contempt. _'Well, guess that is one bitch in the team... this will be SUCH a fun 4 years' _I thought as I turned to the sandy haired boy "Well Nyanza, I haven't heard anything from you... got something to say?" I asked, more like ordered him to give his thoughts. The sandy haired boy looked at me with a blackened eye, that I realised I had inflicted during the first nights scuffle "I Don't particularly care about the fact you're the leader, I' am sure you'd do it well, better than Teal certainly could. However one does have to wonder what a ghost such as yourself is doing here and what you've been doing for the last 5 years?" Came Nyanza's reply which made me instantly regret asking him to speak up.

All three of my teammates looked at me intently for my answer, so I proceeded with my pre-prepared semi-lie. "After what happened with the White Fang, I stowed away on an SDC cargo ship bound for Atlas. From there I found myself falling into a group of freelance mercenaries and Grimm hunters operating outside of the kingdom rendering our services to the colonies and villages in the Atlesian Highlands. Now please STOP calling me a ghost... or you may find yourself being the ghost" my voice flat, toneless as I read off the mental script I had prepared with a very serious threat at the end. Looking around I could see that my teammates, especially Sienna were sceptical of this story. Before anyone could ask any more questions I decided to take the initiative and change the subject "Ok enough about me. Weapons inspection, I want to see what I have to work with on this team." I barked my order just like Kruger and Sanderson used to whenever something was needed of us. Obviously this style of leadership was not going to go down well at all judging by the reactions I got: Teal scowled at me and flipped me off, Sienna shook her head and muttered something along the lines of _'You already know my weapon'_ and Nyanza just pointed and laughed "HA, he has been leader for like 5 minutes and he is already barking orders at us like we're his pet dogs... no offence Sienna" He said mockingly. Sienna seemed to have taken offence by the way she suddenly started snarling at Nyanza which caused him to throw his arms up in surrender.

I looked on at this sudden breakdown of relations amongst SNST and rubbed my temples "People, let's try NOT to kill each other on our first day as a team! Now please bring out your weapons and describe them to me." I asked of my team this time, but my tone was still the same commanding one I had used the first time. "Well now that you say please, I guess I can show you my bad boys." Nyanza said sarcastically as he drew back his sleeves to reveal a set of gauntlets, not unlike my own. "Well that was anti-climactic Nyanza, I got a pair of blade gauntlets as well" I said mockingly to the sandy haired kid. Nyanza poked his tongue at me "Yeah well can yours do this?" He said as he shot the blades out of the gauntlets and into a dartboard he had set up near his bed. Nyanza's gauntlets reloaded another blade and repeated the process, except this time the blades had a tether attached to them. That one made my eyes widen a bit "Well that was unexpected... interesting and unique weapon Nyanza." I said flatly, trying to work out exactly how Nyanza used his weapons in combat. "Wait till you see me use _Taunting Gambit _here to put that ghostly dart shooter you tout around to shame!" came the taunt from my teammate, once again insinuating I was a ghost, much to my annoyance.

But before I could arc up at him and maybe hit him, the sound of a whip cracking caught my attention. Teal had a large whip unfurled at her side that was obviously her preferred weapon. "Well then... I' am living with a ghost and a dominatrix, this is shaping up to be an epic 4 years" Came Nyanza's immediate witty remark which caused me to nearly double over in laughter _'There is always one witty asshole in every group... 2 In Rum Squad actually' _I thought, my previous concerns about being found out temporarily vanishing as Nyanza took the attention off me. "Did you just call me a Dominatrix? you prick! I'am going to seriously kick your ass!" Teal snapped at her partner, clicking on the whips hilt so it glowed with Yellow electric dust. I chuckled, noting Teal's poor choice of words which Nyanza had also picked up on. "Kick my ass? Why... not going to use that whip on it?" Was the instant reply, Nyanza and I were choking on laughter, even Sienna chuckled a bit. However Teal was incensed and stormed towards Nyanza, I however got in between them and tried not to laugh as I defused the situation "Teal... Not here, not now... if you're going to beat him to a bloody pulp, do it in the arena during combat classes." I managed to say, without sniggering more than twice. Teal flipped off both Nyanza and myself before deactivating the dust and curling up her whip. "Right then... I' am off to clean myself up and go to sleep, I think we all need plenty of rest after initiation and classes begin tomorrow." Teal announced as she put her weapon down and began rummaging around in her luggage for what I could only assume to be toiletries and pyjamas.

I however had other plans. "Not so fast there... we still need to unpack and set our room up, so we don't have to rush around trying to find things tomorrow." I said firmly, still using a commanding tone like Kruger. This earned me more groans from everyone. "Simon, we're tired... and I know you are as well, I' am sure it can wait until after class tomorrow." Sienna said yawning. But I was not deterred "Fine... I'll give you all a choice seeing as you want to run this team like a democracy: 1/ we can set our stuff up now and be able to sleep in tomorrow morning before class or; 2/ You can sleep now and be awoken at my usual wake up time of 3:45am. Your choice?" I said evilly, fully intending on waking them up when I did. The three other members of _SNST _gawked at me grumbling and setting about unpacking their belongings and setting up their few personal possessions Not willing to test my resolve on the issue. I finished the quickest, having had nothing with me really apart from clothes and my scroll and my combat gear but that was all in my locker. I came to the last compartment of my field pack had a small code locked box: Containing my journal, the photo of Blake and Schwarzer as well as the Black Fist patches from my camo uniform I placed the lockbox under my pillow and I was done.

Having finished first, I took the time to take out my scroll and send a message off to Kruger... I' am going to need a serious crash course in leadership from him to deal with this.

_Mon Capitaine, Rum Runner 1_

_Arrived Safely at the Beacon. However unforeseen developments have complicated my arrival: I have been given responsibility as a team leader. Responsible for the lives of three others. Requesting advice for how to deal with this new found responsibility before I get someone killed?_

_Secondary note: Have heard no word from Rum Runner 7, probable location: still in Atlas. Will begin search for Rum Runner 3 and Rum Runner 4 at earliest available opportunity. Send Rum Runner 2 my regards and congratulations for his continued success at Atlas-U._

_-Rum Runner 8 Signing off._

As the coded message sent I locked my scroll, grabbed a towel and made my way off into the dorm's adjoining bathroom to scrub off the dirt and Grimm blood from the initiation and the dried blood from my head from my self-inflicted head bashing, but mainly I just needed to be alone for a moment away from the prying questions of my teammates and everyone else in this school. Exiting the shower after a good 5 minutes I may not have felt any better, but I looked much more normal... Well what counted for normal around here. Looking at myself in the mirror: other than the scars one would never know I'd seen much combat or death. Satisfied at my veil of normality I walked back out into the bedrooms to see that the girls had towels out and were obviously waiting for me to exit so they could get ready for bed.

I crashed onto my bed and tried to get comfortable, not used to sharing a sleeping area after having had private quarters for so long. Nyanza was hanging up posters for some superhero comic called: X-ray and Vav. _'Man, I never even heard of that comic before just now... Just how much have I missed in these last years? I' am going to have to look into what I've missed.' _I thought as I tossed about.

"So what do you think of our partners? Sienna seems pretty good... Teal from what I've seen during initiation and tonight seems to be way too uptight and proud: She kept going on about how she comes from a big family of Huntresses including three older sisters who have attended and topped their classes at Beacon and were their team leaders. Something tells me she is pissed that you got the role." I heard Nyanza addressing me from his side of the room. I rolled over to face him and shrugged "She can be pissed all she wants so long as she follows my directives. You definitely got the short end of the stick when it comes to partners... though Sienna and I didn't exactly meet on best of terms, I may have accidentally mistaken her for a Grimm and unleashed a hail of flechettes at her." I replied, beginning to realise just how dysfunctional this team is going off first impressions.

I could hear Nyanza laughing at me "Wow, way to go... guess 5 years of shoot first, ask questions later gave you an itchy trigger finger. Or do you just compare Faunus to Grimm? Because your battle uniform looks a lot like those you see used by the _Black Fist _in Atlas?" Nyanza pointed out. I froze, lucky that Nyanza couldn't see my face at the time. As I turned to face him to reply the awkwardness of the situation was made worse when Sienna stormed into the room "Ok Who mentioned those filthy violent Faunus haters the _Black Fist!_" she snarled at the both of us. I already had planned for someone asking about my uniform as well "My group was not aligned with either the _Black Fist _or the _White Fang. _Our group however raided several _Black Fist _supply depots. I procured several sets of their woodland and snow uniforms for my personal use. I' am quite insulted you'd compare me to those destructive monsters!" I said, probably trying a little too hard to sound offended. But the my partner and Nyanza seemed to buy into my lie.

With that close call averted I only just noticed that Sienna was in nothing but a towel which caused my face to flush a deep crimson and only taking a fleeting glance at the girl I hid my eyes out of embarrassment as I'd never actually seen a girl naked or near naked like that before. _'This is going to take a while to get used to' _I thought bashfully. As I looked up to see Sienna re entering the bathroom, Sighing in relief I laid back into my pillow and tried to sleep, which proved difficult with the noise of Sienna and Teal re entering the room talking and Nyanza playing games and listening to music on his scroll which I could still hear despite him wearing earphones. Sitting up I looked at the time on my watch that sat permanently resided on my wrist _2155._"Ok Nyanza, 5 more minutes then it is time to shut off your scroll... If I can hear the sounds from it then Sienna is probably getting very annoyed at it by now with her ultra sensitive hearing." I said firmly, deciding 10pm was a reasonable time to get to sleep _'Heres hoping I' am able to sleep in later than 0345.' _I thought as I laid back down, trying to shut out any noise from my teammates.

As I tried to sleep my mind wandered back to Velvet. Upon reflection, she seemed very sad and lonely.. Not at all the happy sociable bunny girl that I remembered. The world and those in it had obviously been unkind to her for no other reason than the ears upon her head. _'Guess It was very hard on her losing her friend and then all the violence and hate that followed. How could I have ever believed Sir's bullshit about her and her family being as bad as the Fang?! _I mentally fumed at my own stupidity for having ever believed what I had been told while there. Eventually sleep found me, a shallow dreamless one but sleep nonetheless.

**Velvet's PoV:**

As I sat in my bed I stared out the window and to the stars as I wrote a text on my scroll to my parents informing them of Simon being alive, I just knew they would be amazed and relieved to hear it. But I was still troubled about my encounter with him today. _'Why did he run from me? He recognised me but he still ran. Why can't he face me?, but I' am not going to stop trying until I found out what's wrong and helped him get through it. I know my friend is still somewhere inside that shell of a person. Don't worry Simon I'am not giving up on you.' _I resolved as I finished my letter and sent it off before finally trying to lay down bidding good night to my team I laid down and tried to sleep.

**A/N: **I hope you all like Team _SNST_. You're going to see plenty more of them from here on out as well as the rest of the RWBYcrew especially of course everyone's favourite Bunny Faunus. -CC Signing off.


	22. The First Day

**A/N: **WOW... just WOW... passed 4000 views for the story and 6 new followers from the last chapter as well as plenty of feedback as well... You guys are **AWESOME!** I' am glad that you people are enjoying this. From what the reviews said, it seems _SNST _had a positive reception, especially Teal. I' am glad you guys liked my team... I've been slowly developing them since before I began writing this Fanfic exactly 3 months ago on August 19th (still kinda can't believe I've actually kept writing for this long). Unfortunately for Simon... it's time for class... poor guy.

Also it is going to be a long chapter today, the chapter that takes this story past the 100,000 word mark ... But I' am sure you guys don't mind it -CC

**Chapter 22:The First Day. **

**Simon's PoV:**

I arose, I knew I'd slept later than usual because the sun was up, it was still early but at least it wasn't before 4am. _'Wonder if Weiss is happy having a sleep in and not being awoken by castle staff early each morning.' _I thought chuckling at having learnt that the Heiress was certainly not a morning person quite early on in my tenure at White Castle. Looking to my watch I saw it was 6:30am _'good, time for a light jog before I get ready.' _I got up with the silent precision I had learnt in the _Black Fist _and changed into my gym gear and fastened my Gauntlets to my wrist. Before leaving the dorm I noted that Teal was also gone _'Seems I' am not the only early bird on the team.'_ I thought as I exited the dorm.

I quickly found out that very few teens were actually capable of being up this early. I knew I wouldn't be up so early if it wasn't such a habit. I saw a few teams jogging around or doing exercises in the grassy areas around the academy, all older teams as I hadn't seen any of them at initiation. As I jogged up the main way that led from the academy to the landing pads I saw Teal jogging back from where I was headed. I waved to her as I jogged, however I got no reply except for her to speed up her pace and I noticed her Aura flare a bit as she used it to augment her speed. _'Well if that is how she wants to play it... so be it.' _I flared my red-white aura and sped up considerably, my competitive streak getting the better of me and I began chasing Teal down.

It took a bit, as every time I got close Teal she sped up using her aura which caused me to do the same. Eventually getting tired of this game of cat and mouse I funnelled as much aura as I could into increasing my speed and dashed past Teal and up to the entrance of the dorm building and leaned against the door, smirking cheekily at my teammate "Guess I win?" I asked mockingly. Teal simply growled and shoved her way past me and began making her way into the dorm building. After she was out of sight I felt slightly lightheaded _'Ugh I did skip dinner last night so I' am certainly running on empty, especially after a 45 minute run like that.' _I thought as my exhaustion caught up with me as my aura subsided and adrenalin ran out.

I made my way back up to the dorm, on the top story of the dorm building I was thoroughly hungry by the time I got to the SNST dorm room, before I could open the door to it though I heard the door across the hall crack open _'Looks like it is time to meet the neighbours Team CRDL' _I thought, spinning on my heel to meet a team of 4 boys, all looking supremely arrogant and completely up themselves. "Well look here boys, if it isn't the resurrected one himself. Wonder how long it haunted Ozpin to get a spot here." came the taunting voice of the tallest of the group who towered over me and his teammates was large bulky boy in silver plate armour with a large bird emblem emblazoned across the front. Obviously he was trying to intimidate me as he stood over me, but I was used to this and people using their height no longer phased me in the slightest. I stood my ground and stared him down deciding to not bother being civil here, these guys were obviously a very uncivil group of thugs and I was too tired to bother pretending to be nice. "One warning, I' am a mean and nasty bastard... To piss me off is to gamble with your life, and your manhood." I said simply and venomously before turning my back on _CRDL _to unlock my door and entered my dorm before things turned violent.

Upon entering my teams dorm I saw that Sienna and Nyanza had both risen and were currently doing some final primping before they left for breakfast before class. "Teal seemed peeved and sweaty when she arrived back... what did you do? Not let her take the dominant position?" Nyanza said, causing Sienna to groan in frustration at the remark. "I Swear Nyanza! I hear one more dominatrix joke and I WILL hurt you!" I heard Teal scream from the bathroom. Nyanza chuckled "You made your choice when you decided to wield a whip and wear skin tight combat clothes! So suffer in silence!" Nyanza called back. I watched on chuckling slightly, Nyanza reminded me of the marksmen Kale and Shauno I had served with in the _Black Fist_ with his witty, perverted remarks... however with the boy in front of me unlike the marksmen there was none of the underlying hurt, fear, anger or mental and emotional instability that Kale and Shauno hid beneath their antics. This kid was just a typical 17 year old boy having fun and who didn't give a single fuck for the consequences of his actions or comments.

I still wondered where the marksmen were, Kruger and I assumed they were somewhere in Vale so my primary objective when I found time was to find them, but until then I had Team _SNST _to drive me insane. Dropping that line of thought I rolled my eyes "So how are you 2 this morning? Glad you decided to set the room up last night and get the extra sleep in the morning?" I asked humorously, my partner chuckled nervously "You weren't actually going to get us up at that unholy hour of the morning were you?"  
"Oh I fully intended to do that Sienna, I' am a man of my word. I always follow through on what I say I will do." I replied to in a sing-song voice as I went to retrieve a school uniform and groaning in frustration at the realisation I'll be required to wear a tie _'Of course... if it isn't being flung through the air as an initiation. it is giving us uniforms with ties! damn it Ozpin!' _I fumed inwardly.

After a quick shower and getting changed into my uniform (which was accompanied by much swearing due to the tie trying to hang me), we left as a team to the cafeteria about an hour before classes were scheduled to begin to give us time to bond as a team. _'Hopefully I can learn something about these people apart from the fact that Nyanza is a smartass pervert and that Teal has a massive competitive streak and hates my guts.' _I thought, hopeful that this would go well. As we entered the cafeteria I grabbed a tray and got myself a cup of coffee and some cereal before saving my team a spot by the windows that lined one side of the large eating area. Looking out the windows I could see several teams arriving for breakfast, however conspicuous in her absence was Weiss and her team. When the rest of my team finally joined me, we all sat in an awkward silence waiting for someone else to say the first words. _'Christ... where is Kale and Shauno or even Gregory when you need them? They'd kick start this group into talking... and then probably get themselves killed by Teal or another huntress. Not that I'd complain about that.' _I chuckled at the thought of the marksmen trying to flirt with a huntress and failing epically or Gregory's love of just doing anything to embarrass or infuriate me like the big brother he saw himself as to me.

Nyanza noticed my small smirk "Ok what his so hilarious it can make _'Mr Grumpy_' actually smirk?" he asked accusingly. I turned to my teammate, knowing I couldn't just dodge the question "Just thinking of the antics of a couple old friends from my days as a mercenary. Two of the funniest guys I'd ever met and they also taught me the art of marksmanship, I can smack a target 1000m away with ease thanks to them." I replied, deciding that so long as names of my former comrades weren't given out I could indulge in a bit of storytelling in order to ensure my team didn't accuse me of not letting them get to know me. This seemed to have gotten Teal and Sienna's attention.

"Finally he says something that isn't an order or a threat or a taunt!" Sienna said, throwing her arms up in mock celebration. I scowled at the axe wielder, "Hey, in my defence: you guys haven't given me much of a reason to have been saying anything else." I shot back in mock hurt trying my hardest to get along with my team. Nyanza on the other hand decided to have to cause trouble. "Man Simon, you're shooting those verbal flechettes at Sienna just as well as you shoot literal ones at her!" He said before beginning to laugh uncontrollably. Teal who obviously hadn't been made aware of this incident looked at me in horror "You discharged your weapon at a fellow student? Such poor discipline... Honestly, you call yourself a huntsman-in-training?" She scalded me. Sienna shot me a slightly grumpy look, obviously half-way agreeing with Teal but she eventually shrugged "I have forgiven him for that incident, and I expect you not to pick up the hatchet that I have buried." Sienna said calmly to Teal. I looked to Sienna and mouthed 'thanks' to her before turning back to Teal and shook my head "Just so you know... I don't consider myself a Huntsman-in-training. I' am a soldier of fortune, who is entering a new line of work at the invitation of Professor Ozpin, simple as that." I retorted, sticking with the mercenary story. Teal simply shrugged.

Ignoring her piss-poor attitude I tried to move the conversation along "So Nyanza, Sienna: where did you learn to fight, at combat school? Because I' am going to assume not everyone had combat thrust upon them like me or learnt from their family like Teal did." I asked my other 2 teammates, wanting to try and learn about them. I noticed Sienna shied away from the question whereas Nyanza jumped right into answering. "I attended only the best combat school in all of Vale: Signal Academy, more graduates of Signal are accepted into Beacon than any of the other Combat schools in the Kingdom..." Nyanza said enthusiastically, launching into a rant on his time at Signal and the hilarious antics he took part in with the blonde girl Yang.

I somewhat tuned out as I saw Velvet and whom I assumed was her team enter the cafeteria. I internally sighed while keeping my face impassive and unreadable as stone. _'Why did she have to be here... this is difficult for me as it is without her being here. More than that I' am sure finding out that I'm alive and didn't try to contact her has left her hurt. Don't worry Velv, one day I'll make it all up to you.' _ My eyes followed her as she went up to grab her food and took a seat with her team on the far end of the cafeteria. I noted a stressed look upon her face and a meekness in her stride that I didn't find to fit in with the profile of a Huntress-in-training. Seeing her like this hit me hard and made me feel quite guilty. I saw Velv look my way and our eyes met, as much as I wanted to look away and not to seem like a creep my eyes simply refused to budge from gazing into those beautiful brown eyes and note the sadness within them. I saw Velvet smile weakly at me and nod before then turning her attention back to her teammates.

Snapping out of that little moment before I began guilt tripping myself. I took a mouthful of coffee and tuned back into Nyanza's story "And then she started banging him against a table..." My eyes widened "Wait what? Sorry I got distracted for a moment... what in actual fuck is going on?" I asked after I stopped choking on my coffee. The other members of _SNST _as well as several others all looked at me with weird looks. Nyanza simply started laughing as did Sienna albeit hers was more suppressed. "Dude you came into that conversation at the exact wrong moment. I was talking about this one time Yang and I beat the crap out of some assholes who were harassing Ruby, Yang's younger sister. Not whatever your dirty mind was thinking you pervert!" Nyanza said in mock accusation. I took another sip of coffee, an evil smirk coming across my face. I was not willing to let this cheeky little shit have the last word on this. "Me, a pervert? At least I don't fantasise of my teammate using a whip on me!" I retorted loudly, so other students could hear it. This time it was Teal's turn to turn it shock, choking on a piece of toast she had. "You both are perverted asses!" Teal said indignantly as she returned to eat her breakfast, ignoring the laughter from myself, the people around us and even Nyanza who knew he'd just been burnt but could actually see the funny side in it.

It ended up being a very light-hearted start to the day, which suited me just fine. My only 2 worries were: how little Sienna actually said about her past, having shied away from my questions and letting Nyanza take over the conversation. The 2nd being Weiss not making an appearance, which I only just noted as I was leaving the cafeteria for my first class at Beacon which according to my scroll was: a 90 minute History and Diplomacy with _Dr Bartholomew Oobleck. _followed smoko then a 90 minute a spare session, 90 minute combat class with _Professor Goodwitch. _Then to finish the day is 2 hours with _Professor Port _in Grimm Studies._ 'This ought to be a very interesting day, I can use the spare to hit the gym and warm up for Combat Class.' _I thought eager to test myself against my fellow students and see just how good they were. But before the fun began I had a history class, which I didn't exactly mind: I enjoyed reading about history while I was at White Castle even if it was almost entirely the less savoury parts of history that people would much like to forget. Making my way into the classroom specified for the class. Of my team, only Sienna had this class with me, which wasn't that bad a thing... at least I'd actually get some work done without distractions from Nyanza. I took a seat in the back corner, in order to be able to observe not only the teacher but also my fellow students.

As I watched the rest of the class file in I saw Jaune and his partner Pyrrha, That dick-muncher Cardin as well as several 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students... including Velvet. _'Oh m y... I can't even go to class without seeing her can't I?' _I thought, not sure how I felt about this. I looked to her and gave her a small wave and a shaky smile, just to make sure she knew there weren't any negative feelings on my part, even though I had run from her yesterday. She waved back before proceeding towards the front of the room. I got out my books and prepared for the class, noting the lack of a teacher _'I swear if this Oobleck fellow is late, my opinion of this school will go downhill pretty fast' _I thought as I looked to my watch, seeing that it was 8:58am. Out of nowhere came this blur and all of a sudden was this unkempt, scruffy haired man with a thermos in one hand and a pile of folders in the others standing in the front of the classroom. _'Whoa, where in Remnant did that guy come from? And WHAT is in that damned coffee?' _I thought in amazement at Oobleck's entry into the classroom. He didn't interact with us, instead darting around his desk and the blackboard sorting out his notes for the day.

Just before the clock struck 9am I saw a very annoyed and exhausted looking Weiss enter the class room and with her was Blake, my good start to the morning suddenly vanished _'First Velvet, now Blake? Is there some twisted, sadistic asshole out there who just enjoys tormenting me?!' _I fumed mentally, cursing whatever cosmic entity controlled what happened on Remnant.

I watched Blake and Weiss sit down towards the front next to each other, Sienna moved across the room closer to Velvet-Faunus got to stick together I guess- and Oobleck stopped buzzing about for the first time since he arrived. "Good morning children. Welcome to my class I' am Dr Oobleck. While here you will learn the lessons of the past and how even events that happened 10, 30 even 100 years ago still affect us and are still relevant. By the end of my course you will hopefully have a competent grasp of history and how to apply it to the present in order to ensure that Vale and all of Remnant can move forward and all can prosper in peace, rather than allowing society to regress back to one of racially fuelled violence and war." Oobleck said before taking another swig of coffee... or Fuel, either one is probably as likely as the other and dashing behind his desk to grab up his copy of our assigned text.

"Now open your books to page 12: I'll assume you all have sufficient knowledge of the kingdoms and how they are run without me wasting precious time re-teaching things you should have learnt as children." Oobleck said firmly, I instantly complied opening up to a page labelled _The Great War: Freedom and equality for all? _I had read a lot at white castle about the actual military engagements, the equipment and tactics used, in other words the how, where and the when of it. But I had never much cared for Why it actually was fought, it hadn't really mattered to me at the time. At that point Dr Oobleck launched into a 70 minute lecture on the great war, spoken at such a pace that I could barely understand half the things he said, I ended up recording his voice on my scroll to slow it down and make better sense of it later. Looking around the classroom, my eyes came to rest on Blake, who was working hard trying to keep up with the vocal speedy Gonzalez that was Dr Oobleck. It seemed quite odd that she would be paying much attention to the class if her purpose here had nothing to do with actually learning anything. _'She does do a good job of fitting in here, making it look like she is actually learning and paying attention. But I see through your facade... I' am ready for you Blake, your father couldn't end me and you certainly won't.' _I thought as I stared down the back of the Faunus' head.

The lesson ended quickly enough and the first person out the door was Dr Oobleck _'He is about the fastest person I have EVER seen!' _I thought, deciding it must be a semblance thing. I walked out of the class room and waited for Sienna to exit, I was still waiting for answers from her that she had dodged at breakfast. Leaning against a wall, observing the various students leaving I saw Weiss and Blake leave the class room, talking with each other. The sight of my closest - really my only friend left- becoming friends with someone whom I was certain harboured hostile intent towards me didn't sit right with me, honestly I felt slightly angry at Weiss even though it was irrational Anger as I had left any mention of Blake's first and last names out of the journal I had allowed her to read.

Weiss waved off her newfound friend and made her way over to me, instantly noting the surly- surlier than usual that is- on my face. She frowned slightly "Something up Simon, you seem unhappy?" I looked to my friend and forced a smile "I' am fine Weiss, just had some trouble at breakfast with my team. Speaking of Breakfast: Where were you? and why were you late to class?" I asked, dodging the inquiries into my mood. Weiss huffed "My Dunce of a team leader got so caught up in decorating our dorm this morning that we only left for class at 8:55am and Blake and I were late for our first class!" Weiss whinged. My eyes went wide at the revelation that Weiss and Blake were no teammates _'This is not good... Should I tell Weiss about Blake's past? Or my part in it? hmm better not, If I do that.. it could back fire right back at me if Blake knows of my past deeds: I do NOT need that going public while I' am still breathing.' _I thought, it was then that out of nowhere my mind clicked and I began laughing despite the serious danger Weiss could be in from the Faunus in hiding.

"Oh my! did you really get Ruby as a teammate and leader? Wow, who did you piss off to get that?" I chuckled, which earned me one of Weiss' trademark scowls  
"It isn't funny! Anyway, I better go see my team for morning tea before our next classes. I'll see you later Simon, take care." Weiss said before she walked briskly off towards her waiting teammate. Blake's eyes met mine as Weiss crossed the distance between us, it caught me off guard and I instantly hardened my expression, trying to make it unreadable while at the same time trying to read Blake's expression. Which of course was as impassive as it had been the first night in the Ballroom. Not being able to glean information from her expression drove me insane. I merely nodded in acknowledgement to her, a forced action borne out of needing to try and look polite to my fellow 'student'.

Watching Weiss and Blake walk off, I turned and I saw Sienna leave the classroom chatting with Velvet, about what I had no idea. Sienna saw me and began dragging the bunny Faunus behind her to talk to me. "Hello Simon, The stares I saw you shooting Velvet's way at breakfast leads me to believe that you to know each other?" She said happily. I couldn't tell if she was genuinely trying to help me... or if she just wanted to cause me awkwardness. Velvet and I both looked at each other with extreme awkwardness, eventually I broke the silence first before it drove me mental "Yes Sienna, I know Velvet. Though it has been more than 5 years since I last seen her." I said, trying to keep my tone neutral, though I knew just a hint of sadness and regret seeped through. _'Fucking hell Sienna, you just couldn't help but meddle in affairs that do not concern you... I know you're probably trying to help a fellow Faunus out but please drop it!' _I thought furiously.

I could see that Velvet was studying my face, I knew she was looking at the scars. I touched my hands to them before turned my head to hide them "That is a story for another time Velv, We probably shouldn't be just loitering around the halls either." I said, just wanting this awkward meeting to end, but I knew I had to extend an olive branch to Velvet, I hated pushing her away. So tearing a piece of paper from my note pad I scribbled my scroll frequency on it. and handed it to Velvet "Here take this. I've probably missed a lot of changes back home, so please fill me in. Also: Please send my regards to your parents and the rest of the gang, I' am sure they'd be happy to know I' am alive." I said, with one of my few genuinely warm smiles. Velvet nervously took the paper "Thank-you for this, and I'll be sure to send your regards in my next call home. I'll talk with you some other time." She said hurriedly before scampering off. Watching her go I sighed sadly _'How could I be stupid enough to let her in... She will find nothing but pain with me around.' _I thought sadly, before turning to Sienna who was looking very annoyed at me.

"You just had a perfect opportunity to begin reconciling with someone you obviously care about deeply and you just shut her out completely!" She growled at me. I take an equally combative tone with my partner, not at all liking this intrusion into my personal life "Coming from the person that dodged every question I asked her at breakfast... One warning: stay out of my personal affairs, it is difficult enough to do this all without people who have nothing to do with my past intruding." I growled viciously, not going to tolerate this anymore. Sienna snarled at me "I' am your partner, your wellbeing became my business the moment we laid eyes upon each other during Initiation." I threw my hands up and turned away from Sienna "Just don't Sienna... I've taken care of myself this long, I can keep going." I said and I walked away. deciding to skip out on getting a quick snack and instead going straight to the locker room to grab my weapons and equipment before hitting the gym.

I spent the next hour kicking and punching the stuffing out of some poor punching bag, venting any and all anger I had about the events outside Oobleck's classroom. I knew Sienna was only trying to help, but she had absolutely no Idea what she was getting into with this. As I busted the bag's seems with a punishing kick I decided to take some time to rest before rest of the 1st years arrived for combat classes in the arena that adjoined the gyms and the locker rooms. Sitting back against a wall I slowly nodded off, a quick 20 minute nap before class, just to let me recharge my batteries. I felt a nudge against my shoulder, causing my eyes to snap open and muscle memory to kick in, I leaped up: my battle staff in hand, in its gun form ready to fire. I saw several worried looking students around me and a very perturbed looking Goodwitch. "Mr Alexander, in future regardless of whatever training you may have received in the past will exercise proper weapon discipline. That includes never aiming a weapon at another student whom you aren't engaged in a sparring match with. You aren't a soldier on a battlefield here." Came her grumpy rebuke of me. I nodded in mild embarrassment "Yes Ma'am, I shall try to avoid a repeat of this incident." I replied humbly, collapsing my weapon into its carry form and placing it back into its bandolier.

Entering into the arena we all took seats in the stands. I looked to my team. They all looked icy calm and slightly eager to be able to do some fighting, Though Sienna didn't look at me and blatently avoided me. I had to admit as was I, I looked down to Goodwitch who had her scroll out and was speaking about the parameters of our fights: based on tournament style combat based on Aura levels. Goodwitch then asked for Volunteers for the first match, half the class stood up instantly. I decided to just wait a while and observe other student's fighting style. I did this for about an hour, watching an observing, taking down notes on my scroll of any weaknesses in various people's fighting style. Eventually Nyanza grabbed me by the shoulder and grabbed me up, obviously wanting to have a match against me, to show off his _'Taunting Gambits'_ and try to beat me in a match. What he got was instead a 2v2 match: him and I v Nora and Ren.

Stepping out into the arena, Nyanza at my side I drew my staff and set it back into its gun mode and stood to the left of Nyanza. "Ok, You go for Nora, hopefully you can her weapon out of her hands before she gets a serious hit onto you, I got no idea what either of these 2 are capable of so be careful." I said, analysing our opponents. I heard Nyanza huff at me "Who needs caution, just let me worry about how to deal with the redhead. You just worry about your opponent." He replied in a eager, competitive and thoroughly annoying tone. I had to admit we were at a disadvantage. I could see from the way they moved and acted that Ren and Nora had known each other for a long while, I didn't even know how Nyanza fought going into this.

Goodwitch started the fight and Nyanza took off, flipping around Nora, shooting his ballistic knives at her, and what looked like taunting her verbally. I on the other hand stood there studying Ren with a killer's eye, I was no longer a school student in a training match, all of a sudden I was once again a Soldier on one of the many battlefields I'd fought on, in that instant my training and instincts took over. I saw Ren take out a pair of what looked like green bladed SMG's, Like Nyanza he took off in an agile form of running and began peppering me with rounds, trying to drain my Aura by blocking the rounds. _'Oh no you don't you little shit!' _I thought I lunged in while extending the forward blade on my staff, slamming into the boy with my shoulder. Following up with a cutting slash with my weapon's 45cm blade which was blocked by Ren. I disengaged and flipped back, firing off a burst of flechettes at Ren scoring several hits. _'Ha! eat that you little bastard.' _I thought as I ceased fire to lunge back in, this time with both blades on my weapon extended I began exchanging blows with Ren, trying to work out his weakness.

He was agile, strong and had extensive close quarter combat skills. I managed to slip a blow to one of Ren's wrists, knocking away one of his weapons. I smirked and went to push my advantage, only to get ambushed as Ren slipped his other weapon away into his sleep and utilise his aura to block my strikes, and then just as quickly retaliating with a quick succession of strikes to my face and throat with an open palm.

I leaped clear of the gunman, my breath raspy from the throat hits. _'Oh you bastard... you'll pay for that!' _I thought, trying to find an opening to which attack him, shaking off as much of the pain as I could, not bothering to check my aura level. I saw Ren trying to push his advantage, lunging at me and utilising his martial arts skills with almost unbearably quick strikes, I couldn't block more than half of them, lucky thing was it didn't drain my Aura very much to just take the strikes. I managed to block both his hands with a horizontal block with my staff and slam my forehead into his nose as hard as I possibly could. sending the gunman reeling, blood running out of his nose. Smirking I fired off several volley's of flechettes at him, which he blocked off with his Aura, which would have drained it severely. I also noted as he reeled back, just how long his hair was, nearly waist length.

Deciding upon my new strategy I charged in my Aura flaring angrily, Ren doing the same. But at the last moment I activated my semblance, slowing the speed of things right down. Dropping my staff I dodged ever so slightly to the left and as things sped up I latched onto Ren's hair and jerked it back, causing a whiplash effect with the rest of his body, it went rigid in the air and then slammed heavily into the ground, extending a bladed gauntlet I went to slash Ren's throat, just as my training had dictated to render the killing strike in this instance.

But the strike never landed, instead I felt my skull impact with something very hard and moving very fast. Next thing I knew I was airborne from the strike and flying across the arena. I hit the edge, dazed and falling back on my instincts _'Lob a grenade!' _my mind screamed as my hands shakily went for my webbing and latched onto one of my fragmentation grenades, I got the pin pulled but I wasn't quick enough before the hammer struck my ribs, causing me to drop the now live and armed grenade "You Hurt Ren! NORA SMASH!" I saw the berserker bomber rage as she lifted her hammer to launch a massive strike on my skull, however it never landed, The explosion from the grenade knocked Nora back and allowed me time to recover combat roll over to my staff. However I was halted by a beeping on my arm mounted scroll, my Aura was in the red due to the Aura drain in protecting myself from Nora's devastating blows and from my own grenade and I was out of the match, only Nyanza and Nora remained. I sat near a wall and decided to observe Nyanza and Nora's fight.

Nora was still incensed about what happened to Ren at my hands and Nyanza was using it to his advantage, the berserker bomber was falling for his verbal taunts about her friend and lashing out wildly with swings of her hammer and launching dust grenades at the agile Nyanza. "Come on Nora... swing at me again, look at Renny over there all exhausted and low on Aura!" he called among many other things, I could see Nora becoming sloppy, she didn't tire due to her almost boundless energy but her strikes were becoming increasingly inaccurate as her anger and protective side of her 'friend' overtook her rationality. as she lashed out I saw Nyanza hit her with several of his ballistic blades before using a teathered blade to swipe at her several times and get a wrap around the handle of Nora's weapon, but he couldn't wrestle it out of her hands, instead copping smack from the hammer he had tried so hard to get away from her and ended up sprawled next to where I was against the wall, his Aura dropping straight to red.

"The match goes to Nora and Ren from Team _JNPR._" Professor Goodwitch declared. Nyanza and I still sat sprawled in the corner against the wall of the arena. "Damn that Nora girl hits bloody hard, though I think it is just because you fucked up her boyfriend pretty badly." the sandy haired boy said to me as he groggily got up and offered me a helping hand up, I looked at the pair, and I couldn't exactly see how he could tell they were that close. "Umm Nyanza I think you're dreaming buddy with that conclusion." I replied puzzled. Nyanza rolled his eyes at me "Dude can't you see the look of affection in Nora's eyes? she his head over heels for that Ren fellow and what you did to him looked pretty damned vicious... So she went complete berserker, good job on that... you managed to piss off probably the most insane person in all of Beacon if the rumour from Initiation about her riding Ursa is true." Now that we both were on our feet we walked over to the Berserker Bomber and the Green Gunner as they made their way into the stands to congratulate them for such a good match.

However when I went to shake Ren's hand Nora shoved me away. "No, you dirty fighter have no right to shake hands with Ren! You're lucky I don't break your legs for that move!" She hissed at me, losing her usual happy mood that I had seen through out the class before our match. I raised my hands defensively "Listen up Nora: All is fair in war. There are no dirty moves or fighters: only those willing to do whatever it takes secure victory and their own survival. Ren displayed a weakness in having his long hair flying around during a fight so I exploited that weakness in order to win." I said firmly, almost condescendingly. Nora seemed ready to start a brawl in the stands however Ren placed a hand on her shoulder. "He is technically correct, People out in the real world will not hesitate to exploit any weaknesses I present to them, I thank-you Simon for pointing this out to me early, I shall correct it in future encounters." He said formally, giving my a slight head bow before dragging off his friend to re-join _JNPR_. Nyanza and I sat back with Sienna who looked happy to see me get knocked around and Teal who was chuckling "Hey boys: how's it feel to get your asses kicked by a girl?" Teal laughed, trying to insult whatever pride Nyanza and I had.

However Nyanza wasn't going to let Teal get one over on him that easily "Oh Teal, that was just a warm up for the ass _Whipping _you promised me oh dominant one." With this sudden turning of the tables Teal went bright red in the face "Nyanza for the love of everything... just shut up with that, I've known you for like 24 hours and you're already on my last nerve!" Teal said angrily at her partner, before turning to me. "Are you not going to control him? you're the leader." Came her plea for help. But I was honestly wanting to knock Teal's ego down a peg or 2. "He is your partner... you control him." I replied, just the hint of an evil smirk on my face. Teal sighed in frustration "Well just so you know Nyanza, next combat class I WILL be fighting you. Then i'll show you what happens when you mess with a Wolfsbane girl." She smirked confidently, looking forward to smacking Nyanza around.

After combat class and a lunch time spent in the infirmary getting checked out for any signs of consussion-or a fracutred skull- it was time for _Grimm Studies _with Professor Port. Once again I took position up near the back, the rest of _SNST _Joined me. It was an extrememly boring lesson, even Teal: who was the most dedicated to learning amongst my team was now head in her books... dozing, not studying this time around. I managed to keep my eyes open and listening to the inane stories that the professor was telling the thoroughly uninterested class. I ended up just opening my scroll and watching a movie named '_Bull Head Down'. _A true story about a company of Atlesian Army Rangers stuck in a hostile city during a snatch and grab gone wrong after two of their escorting bull heads were shot down over the city. After about 100 minutes of wasted time Prof. Port asked for a volunteer to display their skills, of course the first person to take up the challenge was Weiss. _'This ought to be funny, Weiss seems peeved about something and being angry while in combat can either help or severely hinder a person in combat, and knowing Weiss it is usually the latter for her.' _After Weiss left quickly to change into her combat gear and take her stance, facing a giant cage that Port had brought in during her absence I saw her team cheer her on, only for Weiss to snap at her partner & leader Ruby. _'Oh so that is why she is annoyed... poor girl, doesn't even know the shitstorm she has unleashed upon herself by annoying Weiss.' _I thought in sympathy to the cloaked girl.

Professor Port opened the cage and out jumped a Boarbatusk which charged straight at the Heiress. Weiss spins out of the way whilst simultaneously landing a glancing strike on the Grimm with Myrtenaster. I see that Weiss' strike caused absolutely no harm to the armoured beast. _'Come on Weiss, fight smart... go for it's belly!' _I thought, not wanting to actually call out information that could distract her.

Weiss and the Grimm waste no time charging at each other once more, and Weiss' thrust gets Myrtenaster caught between the beast's tusks in the subsequent exchange of blows. I curse Weiss' stupidity of trying to go toe to toe with something much stronger thant her, I could tell Weiss was distracted by her leader _'Christ Weiss, if you can handle distractions from me easily enough I don't see how this girl is letting you get unfocused!' _I think_. _The Boarbatusk takes advantage of the distraction to disarm Weiss, yanking her weapon free and knocking it across the room. Once disarmed, Weiss is knocked down by her the Grimm.

As the creature barrels towards Weiss once more, she manages to skillfully roll out of the way, causing the Grimm to hit the elevated seat behind her. As the Boarbatusk is recovering, Weiss quickly regains her weapon and stands at attention for her opponent's next attack. I could see Weiss having a verbal spat with Ruby, though I didn't much care for what was said. Both parties involved were stupid for such divisive conduct in the middle of a fight, Weiss especially... she should know better. The Boarbatusk jumps up and beings to spin. As it swiftly rolls toward Weiss. The Heiress summons a glyph in the Grimm's path, causing it slam into it and fall on its back. Jumping into the air, Weiss then forms another glyph behind her in order to propel herself at the Boarbatusk's exposed belly, stabbing it with the Boarbatusk lay dying, Port began singing Weiss' praises, however Weiss didn't acknowledge them, instead storming off like the spoilt brat she had been when I had first met her. _'Great... she is even more immature than ever before.' _I thought frustratingly as I packed my stuff up and made my way out of the class room with my team.

Once out in the hall way I saw Weiss talking down Ruby in quite a vicious manner before storming off onto a nearby balcony, I decided agaisnt going and seeing her until she had calmed down a bit... I still had a splitting headache and wasn't exactly in the mood to be berated in the way that Ruby had just been. Instead I decided to send Weiss a message on my scroll making sure she was ok and inviting her to meet up and talk about it during the evening sometime. Once the message was sent I made my way to the team dorm,hopefully able to rest a bit after today. Getting to the dorms I slumped onto my bed, Ignoring an order from Teal to get up and do the readings that our teachers had assigned us for today. I tried to doze off, but was shaken awake by Teal "Nope Simon, you aren't getting out of your homework that easily... it'd go much easier if we do it all as a team." Teal reasoned, though I knew she just wanted to deprive me of my rest as revenge for not keeping Nyanza from tormenting her. So I hauled myself back up and did my homework with my team, Sienna still wasn't talking to me after how I'd snapped at her so it was quite a tense and silent homework session, despite Teal's best efforts to keep us talking about our work and Nyanza's efforts to goof off, which eventually earned him a clip around the head from Teal.

Eventually it was about 9ish by the time we had finished all of our readings, as I was about to lay down I noticed a blinking light from my scroll. It was a reply from Weiss, asking me to meet her on the roof. So up I got, attaching my gauntlets to my wrists and I made my way up towards the roof of the dorm block, upon making it up there I saw that I had beaten Weiss up to the roof. I waited several minutes leaning against a railing staring out at the fractured moon.

"Hey Simon, I' am glad you could make it. Sorry I couldn't be here sooner, had to fix up some coffee for my partner." I heard the Heiress' angelic voice behind me. I didn't turn to face her, still watching out into the distance. "Of course I'd make it _Snowflake_, I' am the one who offered. So what caused your meltdown today in front of half the school?" I asked curiously, finally turning to face her, leaning against the railing. Weiss rolled her eyes "Just please don't call me that nickname around Jaune... I don't need him using that on me. As for today, It doesn't matter: I just needed a bit of an attitude adjustment which I certainly got from Professor Port. How's things with your team going, excited to lead?" Weiss asked as she leaned next to me on the railing, looking out over the grounds.

I laughed sarcastically "Weiss, if you want to lead a team... feel free to have mine: I' am not ready to have the burden of the lives of others depending on my ability to give the right orders at the right time._SNST _is very dysfunctional at this point, none of us can communicate freely or trust each other's abilities or work well together, as Nyanza and I displayed in combat class today." I replied, causing Weiss to chuckle. "Yeah, Nora was quite unhappy about that at lunch time, especially seeing as you did pull a muscle in Ren's neck, he can barely turn it right now but no serious damage done. But I'll just warn you now: ever try that sort of move with my hair and you'll find yourself finding work as a castrato." Weiss warned playfully, I could see she was much more at ease here than she was this afternoon during class. "As for your team Simon, I' am sure you'll be a great leader: just give yourself a chance, same as I' am giving that cloaked dunce a chance to be a good leader." Weiss continued on, reassuring me of my ability. I smiled in thank-you to my friend.

"Nice fight against that Boarbatusk by the way of advice though: going toe to toe against something much stronger than you is pretty dumb, you getting tossed around by me all those time should have taught you that." I said jokingly earning me a playful punch from Weiss who rolled her eyes at me. "Oh shut up, not like I haven't managed to overpower you before!" was her lighthearted reply. I laughed at Weiss, loving one of these rare moments where she just cut loose and was very much carefree. I got an evil smirk on my face "Oh so you think you're stronger than me do you? Well I'll just see about that" I said an instant before I wapped Weiss into a bear hug and lifted her off the ground, spinning her around. "I don't think you could do this to me even if you tried." I said as I spun. I heard Weiss stiffle a laugh and smack me in the back "Put me down you big brute." She said in a happy, joking tone. I eventually put the Heiress down, both of us quite relaxed and the stresses of School forgotten for now.

We ended up sitting up on the roof for a good hour, before we both decided that staying up much longer was going to come back to bite us in the morning... well Weiss more than I though, a bit of sleep deprivation never affected my ability to do my work: only my ability to do it without chewing people's heads off. bidding the Heiress goodnight I made my way back to the _SNST _dorm, feeling a lot more at ease about everything after everything that had happened today _'One hell of a first day... I wonder what Tomorrow shall bring.'_

**A/N: **Well that was much longer than I had anticipated and went in a much different direction than originally planned. I hope you all enjoyed it: next few chapters will be more on the other Members of _SNST_. I can't stress enough how important your feedback is guys, so please review.

Also there will be more combat class scenes in the future and I WILL accept requests for any particular fights you guys want to see: they can be 1v1, 2v2 or Team v Team. So feel free to put in the matches you want to see and I'll try to write up as many as I can to put in at various times. -CC


	23. Weekend Antics

**A/N:** Hi all, CC here with another chapter of "From Hunted to Hunter" My updates may slow down over the next few months due to me going away for my summer vacation to see family and to work on my family's farm. But I'll try to update when I can.

As a couple people pointed out, these chapters set at Beacon (This chapter most of all, due to my sheer happiness at finishing up my exams for 2014): while still having some dark undertones are overall much lighter in content that during Simon's time in the _Black Fist_, this is quite deliberate on my part. Beacon could never be as traumatic as the events of Simon's early teenage years. -CC

**DISCLAIMER: **Just in case anyone forgot... I DO NOT OWN RWBY. It is Monty's sandbox, I' am merely knocking over his castles, building my own and making Nora queen of them.

**Chapter 23:Weekend Antics. Sunday, Week 2 Simon's PoV:**

"Ugh I hate you Simon... Why can't we just have a sleep in?" Came Nyanza's bitching voice as I woke him up, deciding that we can begin doing morning workouts as a team just like a lot of the older teams did. "Because the world hates you, you ungrateful shit." I barked in a evil tone, fed up with Nyanza's attitude... fed up with everything really: Nyanza took every opportunity to make some horrible joke, innuendo or prank upon Teal and I, which made Teal even more easily annoyed than usual especially towards me because I mostly left it to her to deal with it, in revenge she taking every opportunity to criticise my decisions and suggest her own in their place Which had put Teal and I at severe loggerheads over the course of our first week as a team. And then came Sienna... "Sienna! Wake up.. it is time for some light morning exercises" I said calmly, not wanting her to snap at me when she awoke, that girl really wasn't a morning person.. or morning puppy, I' am not sure which is more applicable.

"Can it Simon, I'll get up when I' am good and ready!" My partner growled, still pissed at me for the argument during the first day. The only person on the team currently not angry with me was Nyanza, and I was currently pissed at him for being such a difficult little prick with getting up at 6am and for making Teal so irritable through his constant jokes, so in short... My team was just about ready to implode, and it had only been a week. "Hurry up Nyanza you lazy shit... You need to train, lest you want to cramp up before I even get to kick your ass in our fight today?" Teal said happily, having gotten fed up with them not being chosen to fight in combat class she called him out in the middle of the cafeteria, the whole school was looking forward to this fight. Nyanza groaned "What did I ever do to deserve this... being awake before 10am on a Sunday should be a crime!" The ballistic knivesman whined as he managed to get up. Looking over to Sienna I could see that she to had gotten up and was gathering up her stuff for the training session. _'Good, step one complete: get the late risers up without getting my eyes gouged out.' _I thought, happy that I hadn't been mutilated as I thought i would have been.

Placing my gauntlets on my arms I made my way to the door which was currently being held open by Nyanza, who had a evil smirk on his face _'Oh come on... can't he go one morning without some sort of antics? I hope Weiss doesn't have it this badly with Yang' _I thought scared for my friend's safety... and Sanity...

**Elsewhere that same moment: **

"YANG HAND ME YOUR SCROLL OR SO HELP ME!" An angry and tired Weiss screamed at her teammate who had planted a red cloak wearing teddy in Weiss arms the night before in the Heiress' sleep and had taken several photos as a prank.

**Back in SNST's Dorm**

I walked out and waited, shooting several warning glares to Nyanza. But of course the bloody idiot doesn't heed my warning and did his own thing anyway, as Teal stepped out of the room she was welcomed by a firm open handed slap on the ass from Nyanza who took off bolting down the hallway... With an incensed Teal hot on his tracks swearing to disembowel the sandy haired boy. I merely face palmed "Damn it Nyanza... I honestly hope Teal knocks him down a peg or 2... that guy has no Idea of boundaries at all." I muttered grumpily, my mood was not improved one bit by the fact I was stuck with Sienna by myself. I turned to my partner who looked still half asleep and none too happy about being awake right now. "So Sienna, going to talk to me yet?" I asked, hopeful that she had once again buried the hatchet like she did with the initiation incident.

Sienna looked at me and frowned "Well are you ready to apologise for snapping at me? I only tried to help and you go ballistic." came the exasperated reply, followed by a yawn.  
"Sienna I can't help it, my life before... before what happened to my parents is something I've left dead and buried for so long, to have Velvet appear and dredge it all back up before I was ready has left me with a lot of raw emotion to deal with. I won't apologise for snapping... messing in people's private lives uninvited isn't something a good partner does, especially if that same partner refrains to mention anything at all about their time coming to before Beacon." I said, slightly berating Sienna for being hypocritical about secrecy about a person's past.

" But what I will do is not probe too much into your past if you will let me sort my own life out without your invading my personal life again." I replied, with only slight barbs to my words but no outright malice. I could see Sienna weighing up whether to accept my offer to respect my privacy or to bitch slap me for not apologising, thankfully she chose to take me up on the offer of secrecy for both of us. "So shall we go and make sure Teal doesn't outright kill Nyanza?" Sienna suggested, a shaky smile upon her petite face.

However before I could answer that I was knocked to the ground by a blur of gold quickly running down the hall, as I tried to get back up I was knocked down again by a shorter snowy white figure in a dressing gown chasing after the first person. "What in Remnant was that?" I asked as I got up, however I got my answer from the voices that came from the running pair "YANG! Come back NOW! I'll cut your hair when I catch you!" Came Weiss cry. _'Man she must be pissed if she is running around the dorm block in her Pyjamas, maybe this place has been good for her to open up and cut the stuffy snobby Heiress act.' _I thought as I dragged myself up again and took off in pursuit of the duo from Team _RWBY_. "Sienna go make sure Teal doesn't murder Nyanza please... This I got to see!" I called to my partner before I rounded the corner and out of sight.

It took me only a couple minutes to find the pair of girls, apparently Weiss had caught Yang and was currently rolling around on the ground, trying to wrestle Yang's scroll from her grasp. I leaned against a wall and removed my scroll from my pocket to begin filming the two tumbling on the ground fighting over the scroll. I could see several other students gathering to watch Yang and Weiss fight for the scroll, though the pair either didn't realise they were in a public area or whatever was on that scroll was too important for Weiss to care. But no matter what Weiss did she couldn't overpower the buxom blonde who seemed to be simply toying with the Heiress. Eventually Weiss gave up on the fight for whatever was on Yang's scroll and only just realised what had transpired during her blind rage at the Blonde. Her face took on an expression of pure embarrassment at seeing the small crowd of people witnessing her unlady-like behaviour. That look was replaced by one of fury when she saw me with my scroll out and filming. "SIMON!" Weiss shrieked, causing several people to grab their ears in pain. I knew I'd worn out my welcome so taking a page out of Nyanza's and Yang's book I turned on my heel and bolted, Weiss in hot pursuit.

I nearly made it back to the safety, but in sight of my dorm's door I felt an immobilising glyph grasp my leg , causing me to face plant into the ground making my nose bleed. "Oh come on Weiss, let's be reasonable... No reason to resort to violence here" I said, chuckling shakily as I did. secretly emailing sending the video and the video of Ruby exploding the courtyard and Weiss with it to my email account for retrieval later after the Heiress undoubtedly wipes the video from my scroll. I saw Weiss stand over me "Ok Simon, Hand over the Scroll, I'd prefer not to have to use drastic measures on my closest friend." She said in a murderously calm voice filled with false sweetness. I handed the scroll over, maybe a little to eagerly, hoping that Weiss didn't suspect that I'd backed up the videos.

Weiss gave me an angry glare as she deleted the offending file "You're just as bad as Yang... Why can't you just let me have my privacy." Weiss said angrily at me. I merely shrugged "What you do in the hallways is hardly private and we both know that, besides I think I should get to keep this, show it to all your friends at your 18th or 21st Birthdays along with whatever Yang has on her scroll as part of the age old tradition of dredging up all the embarrassing stories of one's past." I said weakly, knowing I was asking to get my ass kicked, but annoying Weiss is one of my guilty pleasures that I took every opportunity to indulge. Weiss scowled at me before handing me back my scroll now wiped of her lapse in judgement. Weiss released me from the glyph and offered me a hand up and a hanky for the blood smeared over my face, She might be annoyed at me for me goofing off, but I knew she was just enjoying not having to meet expectations or standards, even if she didn't let go to the extent I did. Weiss playfully punched me in the shoulder before walking off, no doubt to once again to try and find the buxom blonde that had began all this.

I thought about chasing after Weiss again to see what happens next but I knew I had my own teammates currently trying to kill each other, and unfortunately Nyanza probably needed me to stop Teal from dicing him up. I opened up my scroll and called Sienna, hopefully she had found the pair and stopped it getting too violent... at least until the grudge match this afternoon. Sienna answered the call and I could hear Teal going off her brains at Nyanza, who from what I could hear was laughing to the point of suffocation. "Hey Simon, found the other pair. Currently Nyanza is safe, he used his Ballistic knives like a grappling hook and took himself up a tree. Teal is still raging about him violating her." Came Sienna's voice, trying to sound serious but I knew she was getting a real kick out of seeing Nyanza suffer. "Ok Sienna, just try to keep Teal away from the annoying one until the match at noon. I'll keep Nyanza busy and we'll meet at the arena about 11:30 to give them time to prepare for the match." I replied to my partner before ending the call and grumbling _'So much for a team training session' _I thought frustrated at my ruined plans.

Making my way out of the dorm building I could see Nyanza swinging around a tree branch using his ballistic knives and tether as an improvised swing. I looked up to my carefree teammate and shook my head "What are you? a bloody monkey?" I called out to him. Nyanza didn't acknowledge me, instead he began to swing from tree to tree using his weapons. I face palmed at my teammate "Oi Nyanza, I hope those tethers snap!" I yelled out to my teammate who was really getting under my skin. Nyanza perched himself up on top of a branch in a tree near me and retracted his blades fully. "Simon, these tethers can easily hold up to 500kg... I weigh about 70, no way I'am going to be able to snap these." Nyanza called out tauntingly before jumping off the branch, completing 3 somersaults before landing perfectly on the ground.

I had to admit, I was impressed (and slightly jealous) by his agility and gymnastic abilities, I could never hope to accomplish feats like that, especially with my knee which still gave me a numb ache every time I flipped around during a match. Nyanza bowed as he recovered from his landing "Thank-you, Thank-you I'll be taking autographs now." he said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes and smacked him over the head. "Mate you're lucky to be alive... I was quite content to allow Teal to beat you to a bloody pulp after you smacked her on the ass. And you WILL be apologising to her for it after the match" I said grumpily, just wishing for once Nyanza wouldn't act so immature and self centred. Nyanza simply shrugged and walked off "Whatever you say Mon Capitaine. Well we got a few hours to kill before the match, and seeing as it seems I' am not welcome near my partner at the current time. Why not go and see my friend Yang, she is always fun to be around." He said cheerily as he opened his scroll and smirked, before he began outright laughing. "Seems Yang has wasted no time in beginning her antics. Here I'll forward it to you." Nyanza said, as my scroll buzzed with a message from Nyanza. It contained the image of a happily sleeping Weiss snuggling a teddy that was wearing a red cloak, much like Weiss' partner Ruby did.

As much as I wanted to be mad at this, I simply couldn't help but smirk at the photo, it was rare to see Weiss smiling so contentedly. "Well that explains why Weiss was trying to murder your friend this morning... can't say I blame Weiss for that, especially now that this photo seems to be going viral around the academy." I replied, a slight teasing tone in my voice as I weighed up whether to do something similar with the explosion video I'd captured from the first day, but deciding better of it... lest I get impaled on _Myrtenaster _in my sleep.

"Come on Simmo, we're off to see Yang and her team." Nyanza said as he walked off back towards the dorm building. I tried to think of something else to drag Nyanza off to due to the fact I didn't want to be anywhere near Blake, but I knew it would be futile to try and convince Nyanza of doing anything except what he wanted to. So I trudged off behind my teammate and tried to hide my displeasure at going near the Faunus trying to play human.

As we reached Team _RWBY's _dorm I could hear several voices inside, none of them sounded too hostile in their tone though even through the moderately thick walls I could recognise Weiss' shrill tone when she is pissed off. Nyanza however seemed undeterred by Weiss apparent sour mood and knocked on the door. "Sup Rubes, Yang? it's Nyanza, mind letting me in?" The sandy haired kid called out in a sing song voice. Clearly he was quite close, if not brotherly close with the girls... though I had kinda worked that out on the first night, just before a giant bloody brawl started... that totally wasn't my fault.

The dorm's door opened up and out came the cloaked girl, Ruby... or as Weiss would say _The Dolt _or _The Dunce_. Who upon seeing Nyanza got this big toothy grin over her face "Well look whose suddenly become a big shot team captain." Nyanza chuckled as he ruffled Ruby's hair and walked into the dorm and I followed, currently passively observing, just like I did when I was a body guard and Weiss was out in public with me shadowing her as an unseen and passive protector. Inside the room I could see Yang listening to music and reading a comic book. Weiss was trying to study and by the look of the 2nd set of books on her bed, was also tutoring Ruby... or at least attempting to and failing judging by her exasperated look and the annoyed tone I had heard her speak with from outside. I looked around and couldn't see Blake anywhere in the dorm _'Thank dust for small mercies' _I thought, slightly relieved at not having to be near Blake at this point in time.

I heard Yang click off her music and jump down from her bunk to smack Nyanza in the shoulder and looking at him in mocking annoyance. "Nyanza Torres! Where have you been since initiation! you haven't text, you haven't called... you haven't even come to see us at lunch! Ruby has been so cut up and I've had no one to annoy except _Ice Queen_ over there! Explain yourself?!" Yang growled mockingly at her friend. Nyanza simply laughed and put yang in a headlock "I knew you missed me Yang, even if it is only because I'am just so attractive." Nyanza said with a wink to the blonde. I made fake gagging noises at the wannabe Casanova.

Walking over to Weiss' bunk and leaned against it, clearing my throat to get Weiss attention who had up until this point been ignoring Nyanza and I and had instead been doing her study. "Hey Weiss, I see you've managed to retain some sanity through your first week." Weiss looked up and smiled at me "Oh of course I kept my sanity... You just need to learn to ignore the blonde fiend over there as well as keep Ruby away from sugar and things go pretty smoothly." The Heiress said nonchalantly before sticking her nose back into her book, obviously not really wanting to save me from the combined antics of Nyanza and Yang. I rolled my eyes at the heiress, who was probably secretly wanting to see me suffer for filming her very un-lady like fight with Yang.

residing myself to not being given the mercy of even being able to do some study with Weiss to escape Nyanza I turned to face the remaining three people currently occupying the dorm, who seemed to just be catching up... even though it has ONLY been 1 week since we had arrived at Beacon, these three acted as though it had been months. So I let them have their private conversation as I slowly edged my way closer to the door in order to hopefully leave without them noticing. Unfortunately I got to within about 2ft of the door when Nyanza noticed "Oh captain... You weren't going to ditch me were you?" his smartass tone evident in every word he spoke. _'Oh you cheeky little shit... Just couldn't let me have some time to myself away from any annoyances from you or Teal or Sienna!' _I whined mentally before turning to face the trio.

"I wouldn't call it ditching... I was just here to drop you off at your babysitters while I went away and tried to resist the urge to throat punch you." I shot back, sarcasm dripping in my voice. Yang looked slightly mad that I was threatening Nyanza but the boy just laughed "Jeez Simon, you really are a cranky, humourless bastard... I can see why you're so close friends with Weiss." Nyanza said laughing and getting a high-five from a sniggering Yang and Ruby. I rolled my eyes and looked disapprovingly at Nyanza "I honestly hope Teal knocks you out... maybe it'll knock a few things you're sorely lacking into your thick skull." I retorted to my teammate. Nyanza went to respond before a book came flying across the room and smacked the smartass boy in the skull... hard. "Hey! We are not humourless, we merely just don't share your sense of the word." Weiss said from her bed.

I smirked at how feisty the Heiress could be when offended. "So Simon, Seems Weiss has taken after you insofar as having to get violent whenever you're offended." Nyanza teased. I rolled my eyes and decided to ignore the pest, instead I turned to the sisters... whom I hadn't actually spoken to before. "So Yang I saw that photo of Weiss with the teddy you planted on her. One must wonder... just why do you keep a cloak wearing teddy? Need something to snuggle and stop you being scared of the dark?" I said, my tone mischievous. Yang choke on her reply and I could hear Weiss snigger in the background, obviously happy that the blonde fiend had been burnt. I could see Yang struggling for a reply, she had obviously been caught off guard. Yang didn't look offended at all, in fact quite the opposite "Well I certainly didn't expect that as an introduction, I like your style Simmo." Yang laughed at me.

During this little exchange Ruby had slunk away into a corner, obviously slightly having become slightly uncomfortable with a stranger such as myself in her dorm. Yang also noticed her sister becoming awkward with this social interaction, I watched Yang put her sister in a headlock and drag her back into the conversation "Oh Ruby, you must stop being so shy when meeting new people. I mean it is only Weiss' friend... her only friend." Yang said Cheekily. "Hey!" I heard Weiss shrill at her blonde teammate which elicited laughs from Yang, Nyanza and even Ruby. I however managed to suppress my laugh, lest I get on Weiss' shit list. After that we spent the majority of the morning getting to know each other and trying to one up each other and swapping stories... or more to the point Yang and Nyanza telling tales of their time at Signal and me just listening and learning about the sisters and about Signal. Even Ruby eventually lost her awkwardness and joined in with a few stories (mostly related to forging her Scythe).

"Hey Rubes, Tell Simon about how you got into Beacon." Nyanza said. I had to admit this is a story I wanted to hear, how a 15 year old could get into Beacon. I saw that even Weiss looked up from her studies to listen in, though she was looking at me more than Ruby, but i didn't dwell on that fact."Umm Well, I was just at the dust shop looking through the latest weapons magazines when the place was robbed by a bunch of goons and this man in a white suit and a bowler hat who wielded a cane." Ruby began. I jumped up as soon as I heard the description of the leader. "WHAT?! You saw Roman Torchwick? Here in Vale?!" I half yelled, wanting answers. Ruby shied away slightly from my outburst and Yang got up in my face "Hey, don't scare my sister... and what do you care about Roman Torchwick anyway?" She said, her lilac eyes gaining a red tinge, warning me not to frighten Ruby again. Weiss stood up from her bed and pushed Yang away from me. "Don't get up in his face... he has a very good reason for his intense interest in Torchwick, so let him explain."

Everyone turned to me, a very curious look on their faces. I hadn't expected this eventuality and I hadn't had much time to think up an explanation that fit in with the lie of my mercenary service. I could feel the stares of curiosity burning into me. "Umm, Here this will explain it better." I said, rolling up my pants to my knee to reveal my right knee, complete with the scaring from the operation to replace and repair my knee. "See that, Roman Torchwick did that to me the night I met Weiss. He shot me point blank in the knee with his cane and it destroyed my knees internal structure." I hissed angrily, not at those around me. But at Torchwick _'Oh I' am going to kill him when I find him.' _I thought menacingly. Ruby and Yang gazed at the scar, slightly shocked at just how many injuries I had. Nyanza on the other hand just nodded in acknowledgement "So that is where those scars came from, wow Torchwick did a number on you." He said, not humour in his voice, I could see he was worrying over what could have happened to Ruby had Torchwick gotten one over on her like he had me.

"I can see you worrying there Nyanza... Torchwick wouldn't have been able to do to Ruby what he did to me, I'd already been injured badly before I engaged in combat with Roman. So I was at a disadvantage that Ruby would not have been." I replied, trying to calm my perpetually annoying teammate down before thinking about what-ifs gets to him. Nyanza snapped of his momentary worry session. We all sat in silence, a tense cloud of various emotions hanging over the group. Eventually Ruby broke the silence "What is everyone so down in the dumps for? I was in no danger from those goons or Roman." She said confidently. I shook my head at how someone so shy and scared of strangers could be able to so easily face monsters and those who threaten the world.

"Well as fun as this impromptu D&M has been fun, but my match with Teal starts in 40 minutes and I need time to warm up. So whose ready to see me fight the dominatrix?" Nyanza said full of confidence, his worry and uncertainty all but forgotten. I rolled my eyes "You're just going to make Teal angry speaking like that about her." I reminded my teammate. Nyanza simply smiled at the prospect of Teal being angry "Good."

In the arena Teal and Nyanza stood opposite each other. Teal had her whip unfurled and Nyanza was flexing his arms and about 50 students had gathered in the stands to watch the match. I had ended up sitting by Teams RWBY and JNPR with Sienna to watch the match, Blake was still not with her teammates, which I was thankful for... Ruby and Yang were quite nice once you got over Yang's over protectiveness of Ruby and her mischievous antics and Ruby's shyness and well it is hard to explain Ruby, she is an odd little girl with many paradoxes about her. I turned my eyes to my teammates in the arena. I could hear Nyanza taunting Teal about something, I could almost feel the anger seething off of Teal at this point as she ignited her whip with red dust and the match referee Professor Oobleck began the match...

**Third Person PoV: **

Teal moved forward several feet and turned on her heel and lashed out with the red glowing whip, throwing a wave of red flame towards Nyanza who shot out one of his tethered blades into the wall to his right and retracted it pulling Nyanza out of the way and towards the wall. "Come on Teal, you really think something like that is going to be able to beat me? You need to try harder." Nyanza taunted the girl. Teal snarled and proceeded to send several more waves of flame at Nyanza at different angles to surround Nyanza in all directions. Nyanza attempted to but failed to escape the flames, instead having to just take the hit and hope it didn't drop his Aura too much. After Nyanza took the hit, his Aura had dropped by 1/3, it was clear that Teal's dust abilities that she conjured through her whip packed a substantial punch.

Nyanza clicked a switch to untether the blades and shot 2 blades at Teal who flicked her whip and sliced the blades flying towards her with the dust imbued whip. Teal clicked something on her whip and the red flame dust was replaced by the Yellow electric dust, Teal then charged to within about 3m of Nyanza and began flicking the whip, trying to land a blow that would electrocute Nyanza into submission. The sandy haired boy however took to a similar attack style, shooting out one of his tethered blades at Teal and flicking his wrists to control the movements of the blade: trying to cut Teal or latch onto her weapon and disarm her. This continued on for about 45 seconds before Nyanza shot a blade at Teal which she had to block with her Aura as the blade moved too fast for her to dodge.

As she stood stunned from the blade bouncing off the Aura protecting her Face, Nyanza delivered a punishing spinning kick to her face. Teal back flipped several times to escape Nyanza's surprise assault. Nyanza however didn't follow up his assault, instead retracting his blades fully and leaning against a pillar near where there fight had taken place. "Hey Teal, you ready to actually try fighting yet? You're making bored right now." He said in the most annoyingly taunting tone possible.

Teal's aura flared as she got even more infuriated and reignited her whip with a silvery dust and flicked it several times at Nyanza, each flick creating a cutting blade that flew towards the boy. Immediately following the blades, Teal charged in not wanting to give Nyanza any time to react to her next attack. However Nyanza shot a tethered blade straight up into the ceiling and retracted the tether to haul himself up to the roof. "Nice try Teal, you were just a little slow... Just like you always are." Nyanza taunted as he dangled from the ceiling. Teal was about to unleash volleys of the cutting silver blades that the silver dust on her whip created but Oobleck stopped her "Sorry child, but I can't allow you to damage the ceiling for the safety of the other students." He said firmly before turning to Nyanza "You have 10 seconds to return to the ground or you'll be disqualified from the match." Oobleck ordered.

Nyanza did as he was commanded, shooting his other tethered blade into another part of the ceiling and used it to vine swing himself at Teal, poised to deliver a massive kick. Teal saw this coming and took changed the dust coating from silver to grey, she waited for Nyanza to get close enough and flicked her whip up and created a large stone in Nyanza's path. The boy kicked straight through the obstacle and detached the tether from his right gauntlet that he had swung down on. Teal flicked her whip, using the brown dust to propel cricket ball sized rocks towards Nyanza, striking him with several. Nyanza retaliated by shooting 4 more knives at Teal, striking with 3 of them.

By this time both fighter's auras were in the orange, only 1 or 2 decent clean hits away from dropping into the red and losing the match. Nyanza was looking very casual and not seeming to be taking the fight seriously. While Teal looked almost too angry to think rationally. Teal selected the red dust again to coat her whip and except this time instead of merely glowing red, the whip itself was on fire with which Teal used to slash frantically and wildly at the taunting Nyanza who shot 3 of his remaining knives that he had loaded into his gauntlets (each gauntlet carried 6 knives loaded) back at Teal before he used his one remaining tether to latch onto a far wall and escape from Teal's assault once again.

Teal turned to face Nyanza who stood completely open leaning against the edge of the arena "Hey Teal, are you sure you're from a famous family of hunters? Because first years at Signal could beat you... your parents and siblings must be so ashamed." Nyanza once again taunted. This time Teal lost it completely. Igniting her whip with Yellow dust Teal charged the caught off guard Nyanza and lashed out, catching Nyanza around his neck with the whip, turning Teal's weapon into a makeshift noose: a noose that Nyanza found out was covered in serrated spikes only a cm or so long but nonetheless cut into his skin and also electrocuted him due to the electric dust coating and reacting with the whip. As Nyanza strangled on the whip he managed to fire off his last 2 blades (1 tethered, 1 not) both at the hand holding Teal's whip. As teal was so angry and focused on seeing Nyanza suffer she didn't notice him fire off the blades until the untethered blade knocked her whip loose and the tethered one was wrapped around the whip's hilt and pulled from her grasp. Disarmed of her weapon Teal was vulnerable but however just before Nyanza could land his intended kicks and win the match Oobleck blew a whistle "Match: Teal. Nyanza's Aura levels are now too low to safely continue. Now shake hands as partners and fellow students." Oobleck ordered, hoping that the pair hadn't been torn completely apart by the bitter taunts Nyanza had thrown in this match, but Oobleck decided not to address it directly... that was a job for their captain. Nyanza and Teal approached each other and Nyanza held out his hand "I hope my taunts didn't offend, they are just part of my fighting style" The boy offered as a weak excuse for his conduct in the match. Teal slapped his hand away and then smacked Nyanza in the jaw before storming out of the arena.

**Simon's PoV:**

That night It was tense back in our dorm, Nyanza and Teal had finally been forced to come back to the dorm by Oobleck and I so that I could try and repair some of the bridges between the other half of Team SNST. "Nyanza, I have to agree with most of Teal's side of this... insulting her family was just way too far. I get the taunting, I really do... an angry opponent is more easily manipulated." I said, scoldingly yet also understandingly... Nyanza was used to taunting opponents and then using their anger against them. "So Nyanza... I believe you owe Teal several apologies." I added on firmly, my tone ordering, not asking. Nyanza threw up his arms "I don't see why I need to apologise... All i did was follow my fighting style as I have for years, no one else has ever chucked such a fit over them." Nyanza replied stubbornly.  
"Well all those people were your friends and knew your style... we've known you all of a few days and you have insulted Teal's family, something she holds very dear!" Sienna threw back at the stubborn boy. Teal stayed quiet in all of this, obviously she was very angry and very hurt at the idea she could be bringing shame to her family. I'd had enough of this "Nyanza... Apologise to Teal now! I growled, my tone full of venom, my fists raised and ready to strike.  
Nyanza however was unswayed "I did nothing wrong... Teal is just too emotional and susceptible to my tactics. I didn't mean what I said one bit- *SMACK* My fist collided with Nyanza's jaw. "Apologise... or do I need to hit you again?" I growled, now treating Nyanza like someone I was interrogating and an apology was the information I wanted. Nyanza groaned in pain and finally relented "Fine, fine, I'll apologise... just don't hit me again you psycho." Nyanza growled at me before he turned to Teal and tried to smile at his partner "Teal I' am sorry for insulting your family and insinuating that you had brought shame to your family and your famous name." Nyanza said with dubious sincerity, however it mattered not to Teal who looked up at her partner Her eyes glistening and voice shaky "So I' am not a disgrace to my family?" I looked at this display curiously... Teal since I had met her had been nothing but confident in her abilities and extremely proud of herself and her family, yet here I saw her acting like she was a small child wanting compliments from her mummy, I found it both humorous and worrying at the same time. "Not at all Teal... you're a great fighter." Sienna said to Teal, with all the sincerity she could muster.

"Ok you all, before this gets to sappy, try and get some sleep... training begins at 0600 tomorrow, that means wake up is 0530." I said, not having given up on getting the team training together. Everyone was too tired to argue and began making preparations for bed and I slipped out of the dorm for a bit of time to myself up on the roof, Weiss wouldn't be joining me tonight, which was the first time she hadn't spent time with me up here since our first night in our dorms but I didn't mind it. I looked at my scroll, I hadn't heard from Kruger in over a week... something that the _Old Man _wouldn't allow to happen by choice, to miss out on his weekly reporting. I was kind of worried for my former commander but I knew trying to contact him wouldn't do any good. So instead I typed out a message to Sanderson asking if he knew why Kruger had missed his scheduled check-in, I also informed Sanderson and asked him to tell Kruger that Roman had been confirmed as being in Vale... I knew both of them would want to _Have a chat_ with Roman about his treatment of their squad. Once the message had been sent I paced the rooftop for about 5 minutes before heading down to the dorm, hoping Sienna had been able to keep the peace while I had been gone.

**Somewhere in the Vacuo Desert: Ty Kruger's PoV:**

It had been a slippery slope to end up here, first just an acquaintance, then I was advising them, then training them... now I had joined the Militia and now had command of the newly formed 4th Long Lange Desert Raider Squadron of the Vacuo militia. That meant there was more than 150 men and women under my command, much more than the 8 men I had used to lead and I was determined not to fail these men as I had my last command. As we drove over the desert dunes, our way lit only by the full moon and our night vision. My Squadron was mounted on heavily armed, mobile jeeps and spread across several hundred square kilometres searching for a band of dust raiders who had hijacked an airship carrying dust to Vacuo from a small quarry between Vacuo and Vale in order to retrieve the shipment of the vital resource. Dust trains were often raided but the this is the first time an airship had been taken... which had resulted in an entire raider squadron as well as several bullheads being sent to find it. "Colonel Kruger, This is Mamba 2-1. We've got a hit on thermals about 5km East of your position." I heard the call from the bullheads and I directed my driver to head East as I got onto the radio to signal for the rest of the Squadron of the development.

about 10 minutes later we arrived at the coordinates, it seemed it hadn't been a hijacking... the Airship had been blown out of the sky, it's hull punctured in several places that I could tell at first glance were caused by advanced AA missiles. The ship's crew and cargo all blown to shreds. I surveyed the smouldering wreck, it had been 3 days since we'd lost contact of the ship, it had taken 2 just to arrive in the area where it had been lost, so there was slim hope for survivors. I shook my head and frowned "Set up a perimeter! we're to hold this area until the investigation team arrives! Roll out Raiders." I ordered over the Squadron radio frequency.

The next morning a team of crash investigators had arrived by bullhead. I made my way to the head investigator, whose name escapes me. "There is no way this was the work of dust raiders, the dust tanks were destroyed by the impact of the missiles." I observed, having fought against dust raiders before during my time in the Atlesian Military. The investigator shrugged "not my area of expertise, my job is limited to how this ship crashed, not why or who made it crash." came the almost robotic reply. I threw my arms up and walked off, not wanting to deal with people like that _'Where is the marksmen when you need them... damn they had some good pranks sometimes.' _I reminisced happily about the memories of Rum Squads' off time. I still worried about where those 2 were, I had a responsibility to find them... even if as usual it would be poor Simon who had to do the actual work.

My 2nd in command, Major Silver waltzed over with a scroll in hand to rouse me from day dreaming or dozing off like the 60 year old I was. "Well we can rule out dust raiders... they would never take down the ship and lose its cargo. What about the rebels that roam the wilds between Vale and Vacuo?" he asked. I shook my head "Nah, they have AA missiles sure, but only small handheld ones capable of taking down bullheads and not larger airships." I replied, trying to piece together just why someone would destroy and not steal this dust, it made absolutely no sense... and yet I had the feeling that this wasn't the last airship we were going to lose this way, Something was amiss and I resolved to find out exactly who was behind this and why.

**A/N: **I hope you all enjoyed seeing Nyanza and Teal fight it out. if you have any questions about Nyanza's weapons or anything else at all... don't be afraid to ask me if something crosses your mind or if you have comments or ideas for me. I'll do my best to answer (without giving out spoilers haha).

Also I' am still taking requests if anyone would like to see any particular characters fight during combat class... I've got a couple requests so far and they will be coming out in the next few chapters.

1 last thing: I' am going to include physical descriptions of Team SNST here, just in case you guys have trouble trying to picture them:

**Simon**: approx 175cm. chocolate brown hair dual facial scars along right side of the face running from either end of his eyebrows running down either side of his right eye, over his right cheek and ending at his lower jaw. Blue-Gray eyes. solid muscled build. walks with a slight limp in his right knee.

**Nyanza:** approx. 164cm, scraggly sand coloured hair with scrawny agile build

**Sienna:** petite and well proportioned, an overall very beautiful girl of 165cm. Floppy dog ears and Tail. with Auburn hair town to her shoulders tied into a braid. her tawny ears and tail stand proudly for all to see, not hidden at all.

**Teal:** blonde hair with Teal tips, stands 169cm tall with a sturdier, more bulky build than Sienna, tanned skin from a lifetime in the outdoors. a faint scar on her right calf

I hope that helps you all -CC


	24. Complications

**A/N: **I had quite a few questions PM'd to me after the last chapter, which I greatly appreciate: I love being asked questions about my story and I' am always happy to answer. I decided to share the answer of one particular question here. That question came from **xThatOnePersonx **and had to do with where my inspiration for "From Hunted to Hunter" came from.

The answer is simple: Theories. Blake made a few comments in Volume 1 about the business practices of the SDC and about the White Fang's change in leadership and methods. Those comments from Blake got me thinking and that got me writing my theories on the White Fang and the SDC. And from there the story just kind of grew a life of its own with the Black Fist and the many colourful characters that Simon has met along the way.

Speaking of those colourful characters: I also had some people losing track of them or forgetting them, so as an aid I shall be adding in at the end of this chapter short Bio's for the more important OC's that will be popping up (apart from SNST). -CC

**Chapter 24. Complications: Monday Week 2, Simon's PoV:**

I awoke slightly later than usual, luckily Sienna had been able to keep the peace between the warring pair that was Nyanza and Teal. Even with that small mercy I couldn't help but let my mind wander to where my former squadies were and what was happening in the world currently, I had been so busy with my studying and trying to make SNST work together I hadn't even been able to check the news reports concerning The White Fang or Black Fist since my arrival here a week ago. So instead of getting up to train I lazily opened up my scroll and clicked for the news, I did not expect a photo of me with my parents at age 12 and a photo of my old home that apparently was now a memorial to be the first thing I see in the _Vale Times_ with the headline **'Alive and Well? Teen Thought Dead Resurfaces at Beacon' **I read through the article, it didn't have much to it: Mainly a confirmation that I was the same boy who had disappeared 5 years beforehand and that Professor Ozpin had invited me to Beacon, though the _Times _had no details of what I had done for 5 years and that Beacon representatives or myself could not be reached for comments or interviews.

_'Christ... I've made a massive miscalculation with this... now my damned face is all over the damned news! I should have foreseen this ... stupid, stupid me.' _I fumed mentally, having already had enough of the rumours and constant questions I got asked in the halls about my past... but now all of Vale would be wondering by the looks of how many comments there were to the article: Most were worried for my safety and were glad to see me alive after the tragedy that befell my parents. Others spouted theories on where I had been: Ranging from having ended up in a village outside the kingdom through to ending up in Mistral or Vacuo. Surprisingly not one commenter thought I'd done anything sinister or even went to Atlas, Though I wondered if anyone from Atlas may recognise me and spill the beans on what I had done. _'I need to see Ozpin, maybe he can sort this mess out... he is a powerful person in Vale.' _I thought somewhat panicked. I quickly showered and put on my school uniform before making my way towards the tower where Ozpin's office lay.

I stood in the elevator and was ushered into Ozpin's office, I could see gears everywhere in the structure of the man's office, even his chair. "Ahh Mr Alexander, interesting articles in the news today wouldn't you think?" came the slightly humoured voice of the headmaster. I stared at the gray haired man "I find it more worrying than interesting, I' am just glad they haven't gotten a shot of my current face. Last thing I need is people who maybe hunting me not only knowing I' am in Vale but also having a face to put to the name." I replied frustratingly. Ozpin took a sip out of his coffee and nodded understandingly.

"I can understand your apprehension about this. You have spent your entire teenage life in the shadows, a ghost if you would." I growled at the mention of me being a ghost, but Ozpin ignored it. "And now you've been put into the spotlight when you just wanted peace to go about your life, I can see why you're frustrated. However this all came about by the choices you have made: You chose to come to Beacon under your real identity rather than a cover, did you not expect this would eventually get out. You may not know it... but the death of your parents and the apparent death of you were the catalyst for a chain of events that changed the face of both Vale and indirectly also Atlas. And as such, you suddenly coming back from the dead is big news within Vale" Ozpin said in a matter-of-factly tone.

I processed that, thinking back to a conversation with Lachlan during my first mission with Rum Squad when he had said something similar to this about my family being a catalyst for a short but bloody war between the Kingdom of Vale and the White Fang. I nodded slowly, understanding what Ozpin was saying: I had to deal with the consequences of my choices. Which was something I knew I actively avoided if I chose wrong. "I get that, but how did they find out? I mean you weren't behind the news outlets finding out?" I asked, an accusing tone in my voice Ozpin chuckled and shook his head "Beacon academy does not publish comprehensive student lists except for each year's graduation list. So it would have been a student, they do talk to their families you know." Came Ozpin's smug reply. I grumbled angrily, it would be impossible to find out who spilled the beans, until I remembered that I had asked Velvet to send my regards to her parents. _'Ugh I' am an idiot... total bloody idiot.' _I thought before the sound of Ozpin clearing his throat got my attention once more.

"One more thing before going about your day Mr Alexander: Your team, how are you handling the burden you've been shouldered with? Professor Oobleck says there maybe conflict brewing within SNST?" Ozpin inquired: an inquisitive, knowing look upon his face. I ummed and ahhed for a moment, trying to come up with an answer "We had a slight issue with part of Nyanza's fighting style and the affect it had on his partner, nothing that a bit of 1v1 in the arena can't fix" I replied, fully intending on beating some sense and empathy into Nyanza's thick, empty skull And maybe for my own personal enjoyment after the stress he caused me with the whole thing. I saw Ozpin looking disapprovingly at me "Simon, you can't just resort to violently pummelling your teammates every time disobey or annoy you, regardless of what the Black Fist practices were for insubordination or internal conflict." The Headmaster said sternly, taking a sip from his coffee. I sighed, once again my time with the Fist reared its ugly head in my habits and behaviour. "I shall try to not resort to such physical methods of conflict resolution among my teammates." I replied with absolute sincerity (an exception being the beating I STILL intended to give to Nyanza)... anyone else on the other hand, would receive no such mercy. "I advise you tread carefully with your team, just remember in battle it will them who have your back so you need to trust them and they you. A Team can't function properly if they follow their leader through fear and not loyalty and trust." Ozpin said, dismissing me from his office. I nodded and left quickly.

Upon returning to my team's dorm It was now 7am and I saw that Teal and Sienna were not in the dorm, Teal was probably training and I had 0 idea where Sienna was. That left just poor, poor Nyanza in the dorm who was still asleep. Smirking evilly I silently changed into my training gear (Combat boots, camo pants and a Green T-shirt) and walked over to the slumbering taunter. I drew a deep breath and leant into Nyanza's ear "COOOOOOOOOO-EEE!" I yelled into his ear. A Coo-ee call could be heard for miles and miles around, having it sounded off right next to ones ear is very disorientating. Nyanza jolted up and fell out of his bed. I leaned over his still half asleep form "OK you little shit! up you get, you and I have a bit of 1-1 training to do, you won't need your weapons so leave those gauntlets here!" I yelled at him intimidatingly. The sandy haired boy was disorientated and tried to stand up, but ended up flat on his ass again.

"Come on Nyanza... where's your smartass attitude now! It worked great against Teal for sure... but she is emotionally delicate... me on the other hand, I've been in a permanent state of anger for 5 years, so your petty taunting have no affect on me. No UP UP UP!" I continued to harass my teammate until he managed to scramble up and grab his combat gear and make his way into the dorms bathroom to change. Once he emerged, still looking very dishevelled I had him running through the halls and across campus to the gym where some sparing mats were kept. "Ok Nyanza... you're probably wondering why we're here without our weapons. Answer is simple... we're going to have us and old fashioned bare fisted boxing match. First one down for the 10 count or to bleed is the loser." I deadpanned. Nyanza blinked in astonishment as I raised my fists to him. "Oh yeah Nyanza, fists only. so no: Head buts, elbows, kicks. Punches only." I said smirking _'Oh I' am going to enjoy this so damned much.'_ I thought as I made a _ding ding _noise and shuffled forward in a southpaw boxing stance.

Nyanza raised his hands, obviously having never done much boxing in his life as his stance was a shambles his arms were too far apart and dropped too low which I exploited with a left uppercut right into his chin. Nyanza stumbled back and I pursued him launching basic Right-Right Jabs followed up by a left straight. Nyanza hit the mat within about 30 seconds, having been totally overwhelmed by my offence. I stood back and began the 10 count. My opponent got up at the 6 count. This time he kept his arms up but they were a little too high.

So I began pounding the sandy haired boy's kidney's with a flurry of lefts and rights. Nyanza managed to land a few blows to my chest but he was already severely weakened from both his match yesterday and from the extreme pummelling he had been dealt already by me. Nyanza didn't try to back away from me, he tried to toe to toe with someone 11cm taller than him and must was about 15kg heavier than him, it was admirable but stupid and I made him suffer for his stubbornness. As Nyanza went to strike me he left himself open, I blocked his hand away with my right hand and landed a punishing left hook to his temple which sent the boy reeling to the ground. I once again began the 10 count, but it was obvious to me he wasn't getting up after that highly one-sided beat down.

I hit 9 and somehow Nyanza had managed to scramble up and assume his stance once more. I shook my head "You're as bloody stubborn as I' am Nyanza.. I'll give you points for that but you really should have just stayed down." I said as I assumed my stance against the lanky right hander. Nyanza began to get light on his feet, springing around on the balls of his feet whereas I fought rather flatfooted and more of a brawler but I was still quite mobile. I threw a couple jabs which Nyanza dodged and he retaliated with a few jabs of his own that I blocked, though one did connect with my face. I stepped back for a moment before coming back into the fray letting loose with several jabs to Nyanza's chest and when he bent over to cover his chest I unleashed an uppercut into Nyanza's nose with my dominant left hand. Nyanza reeled back, drops of fresh blood dripping out of his nose.

I smirked and dropped my hands, which by this point were quite sore from the fist fight. I looked to my teammate who now had several bruises and a bloody nose "Ok that's the match.. go get yourself cleaned up Nyanza, hopefully I beat some sense into that idiot head of yours." I said, my tone not malicious, but still annoyed and a bit teasing. Nyanza flipped me off and made his way out of the gym probably to the nurses' station to make sure his nose wasn't broken. I on the other hand headed back to the dorm to hit the showers and get ready for breakfast.

Upon reaching SNST's dorm I saw Sienna and Teal inside, Teal still looked very dejected but had a weak smile upon her face, which was enough for me to know my input wasn't needed seeing as Sienna seemed to have it under control. So I simply ignored the two and grabbed up my school uniform and made my way to the bathroom. Returning about 10 minutes later I saw Nyanza had returned with and ice pack held to his nose "Have a little _Accident _there did you Nyanza?" My tone threatening. The girls looked from Nyanza to me, wondering what was going on between him and I. Nyanza chuckled "Yeah, an _Accident_. I was mucking around on the stairs and fell" He said, eyeing me off as he did. The girls didn't particularly care, though I saw Teal's face light up a bit at seeing Nyanza black, blue and red. I looked to my watch and saw it was about 8am I clapped my hands "Ok people, time for breakfast... Nyanza you can join us once you've cleaned up." I said as I fixed my gauntlets to my arms, still not trusting this place enough to go anywhere unarmed unless absolutely necessary as it was this morning to see Ozpin and fight Nyanza _'Hopefully he got the message I was trying to send to him'_ I thought as I walked to breakfast not realising I was about to get bombarded with questions about the news articles.

**Friday, Week 2: Simon's PoV:**

After spending most of the week avoiding the several dozen people asking me stupid questions about my past, I had finally gotten Team SNST together for some after class training away from probing questions. Needless to say in the Valean summer it was much hotter than anything in Atlas and I was certainly feeling it. I'd started out in full combat gear: short sleeved undershirt, Long sleeved over shirt, pants, boots, body armour, webbing, helmet. But I couldn't handle the intense work out in the afternoon sun and I halted the training after only 40 of the 90 minute session I had planned "Ok people, hit the showers that's enough today." I said as I just about emptied my canteen over my face. Nyanza laughed at me "Seems our brave captain here can't handle the heat in all that thick armour made for the chilly conditions of Atlas." He chuckled at my exhaustion as he walked towards the dorm building. Teal was still very quiet but gave me a small supportive thumbs up, obviously I'd gained some brownie points from her for beating down Nyanza. _'Jeez... do friendships between teenagers always shift so quickly? Are they really that fickle?_' I quizzed myself internally seeing as Nyanza and Teal had both done 180's in their attitude to me.

Once I'd finished my canteen I stripped off my webbing and body armour and unfastened my helmet and outer uniform shirt. Turning to Sienna with my best attempt at a puppy dog face "Mind helping me with my gear?" I cooed sweetly. Sienna rolled her eyes at me "You think your horrible attempt at puppy dog eyes will work on a dog Faunus? Carry your own gear partner." She said sarcastically before punching me in the shoulder and joined the other 2 in heading towards the dorm. I grumbled before slinging my webbing and armour over my shoulder and beginning to my way back to the dorms. On the way I saw Team RWBY, this time however they had Blake with them. I kept my head down, hoping that RWBY (Yang In particular) would not say anything. However of course whatever asshole controlled the universe just had to have it in for me today.

"Hey Simon." Weiss called out to me happily, obviously things in Team RWBY were less tense or divisive than in SNST. I waved lazily at her "Hey Weiss, Ruby, Yang... and Blake." I replied tiredly, my tone slightly hostile to the Faunus-in-hiding however I don't think she noticed. Weiss looked at me curiously "You look beat, been working yourself too hard?" She asked me looking my sweaty, ragged form up and down. I heard Yang laugh and I braced myself for a bad joke. "Of course he's been _WORKING _himself sooo hard to beat for you Weiss." she said making a up and down motion with one of her hands. I rolled my eyes at Yang's crude humour and attempts at word play: having been used to jokes about masturbation, sex and just about every other vulgar topic during my time with _Rum Squad _and as such wasn't affected by perverse humour. Ruby didn't seem to understand what Yang was implying and Blake stifled a small laugh at her partner's perversions.

Weiss however was going very red in the face from anger at Yang's implication. "YANG XIAO LONG! Are you implying sexual feelings between Simon and myself y-you you blonde perverse FIEND!?" Weiss accused angrily. Yang simply laughed and I shot Yang an angry glare "Yang as much as I can appreciate the odd dirty joke. I advise going easy on Weiss, she may not share our humour." I replied, feeling very awkward about this conversation. "Aww Weiss. Having trouble admitting your attraction to the spunky bodyguard that you spent a year with at a castle? Sounds very romantic" Yang said ruffling the Heiress' hair. I could tell she was being sarcastic with every word and I suddenly felt very self conscious at this point in time. _'Stupid teenage hormones.' _I thought to myself, annoyed at this entire situation. "Yang! I'll make this very clear... Isn't and never was anything sexual or romantic between me and Simon. We had a professional relationship as employee and employer." Weiss snapped at the blonde. I was feeling extremely awkward during all this, so slinging my gear back over my shoulder I began to move down the hall towards my team's dorm "It has been wonderful talking with you all... especially you Yang. But I really should get going." I said quickly and half sprinting away, ignoring the fact my helmet fell off my head and got left on the ground, I also ignored the fact a Black haired Faunus was the one who picked it up noting the beat up condition of the helmet as well as faint bloodstains.

That night as I spent my usual chill out time up on the roof I was extremely frustrated about not having heard from Sanderson or Kruger at all this week, I was beginning to feel very isolated without my trusted mentor figures there to check up on me every now and then. I browsed the news on my scroll, completely ignoring anything about me... it was all hollow, fact less bullshit anyway. I finally found an article on the Black Fist up in Atlas.

_The Atlesian Wing of the Black Fist still operating in the Atlesian Highlands has claimed responsibility for the massacre of over 100 suspected White Fang operatives in a public square. This comes as The 1st Armoured Division commanded by Major General Ironwood was replaced by the Atlesian Airborne Division that has just completed specialised Counter Insurgency (COIN) training to route the final estimated 750 Black Fist fanatics hiding in the Highlands Where Martial Law has been declared. General Ironwood has for his service in combating simultaneously the White Fang and Black Fist been promoted to full General and made Chief of Staff of the Atlesian Military. It has been estimated that as many as 75,000 people including nearly 47,000 Faunus and 1800 Atlesian soldiers has been killed in the last 5 years of conflict between Black Fist, White Fang and Government Forces. The Black Fist while near disintegrated has been succeeded by several smaller gangs all over Atlas including in the capital as well as splinter groups that according to our sources have been set up in Vale and Mistral, it is unknown if the group has made any headway in the more racially tolerant Vacuo. If our sources are correct it could put at risk the hundreds maybe even thousands of Black Fist deserters living in these kingdoms._

I looked through the article again trying to form an opinion on it. I thought it was good that the Fist and Fang were being taken down, however I noted he severe deprivation of freedoms and civil rights by Atlesian Forces in Conflict Areas. But I mainly paid attention to the last few lines, hundreds of deserters in Vale, maybe thousands of them... if the Fist really was in Vale each one of them, especially me was now in danger... I heard footsteps approaching _'Must be Weiss coming to see me.' _ "Hey Wei-"

I was surprised when instead of seeing my friend I instead saw Blake, my blood ran cold and I was instantly on guard. I had my gauntlets with me should Blake be here to exact some sort of revenge upon me for her father. However I noted that Blake was both unarmed except for.. my helmet and seemed to be dressed for bed, not combat. "Weiss said you normally come up here of an evening." She said deadpanned, not an ounce of emotion in her voice. I made a mental note to discuss with Weiss about why she gave out part of my routine, the only part where I' am really vulnerable to attack. "I See." I answered equally deadpanned and guarded, wondering what the hell the Faunus wanted. "You dropped your helmet when you made your escape from Yang's antics this afternoon." Blake stated, her tone softening just a bit. I stared at the helmet studying all the dents underneath the bloodstained and patched cloth lining.

"Thanks Blake, but I don't see why you had to bring this all the way up here when you could have just dropped it off at my dorms." I replied, wondering where exactly this conversation was going. Blake began running her fingers over the patchwork I'd stitched onto the lining to cover tears and holes made in combat as well as the bloodstains. "I'd like to know what you did in Atlas to end up with such tattered equipment before you went to work in that reprehensible organisation that Weiss is Heiress to." Blake asked bluntly, thrusting the helmet into my chest. I stared down the Faunus girl. "I'll tell you the same thing I told my team and anyone else who had asked me. I was a mercenary protecting neutral villages in the northernmost parts of the Atlesian Highlands fighting both White Fang and Black Fist Forces, killing a lot of them." I snarled the last part. Blake however was not deterred or intimidated by my tone of voice. "Hmm interesting, I read a lot about the war up there... nowhere was mentioned neutral mercenaries." She said, probing my responses. My mind went into overdrive _'Oh shit, shit, shit! she knows!" _my mind screamed and I instantly went on full alert, watching her every move. "Well we tried to keep out of the news... we found that not committing atrocities like Fists and Fangs did tends to work very well." I replied, working very hard to keep the anxiety and other telltale signs of lying out of my voice and behaviour. Blake nodded slowly, her deep amber eyes studying my blue-gray ones for any sign of lying or hidden meaning. I could tell that Blake didn't believe anything I was saying but I knew she also wasn't in a position to call me out on it and I think she realised it. "Well I'd certainly like to know about these _Mercenaries_ you served with sometime. Good night Simon." She said only slightly angrily before turning on her heel and walking away back off of the roof. I sighed _'This is getting more complicated every day.' _ I thought as I stared out at the broken moon.

**Monday, Week 3: Simon's PoV:**

The weekend had passed quickly and without anymore incidents with Blake, Though Yang did seem to be sporting a bit of a shiner on her right eye since Friday... guess she really pushed Weiss over the edge with those perverse comments. I was walking from lunch to the Combat arena for Combat classes seeing as Combat class took up our afternoons on Mondays. As I walked down the halls I saw Cardin Winchester and his team of goons walking around like a gang of street thugs, terrorising the smaller students at Beacon. My neighbours saw me and instantly dropped their current target for bullying and blocked my way to the arena "So Simon, buddy. I was reading the news the other day... your name comes up quite a bit. How's it feel to be a celebrity ghost?" Cardin laughed, knowing full well that the tag of being a ghost got a reaction out of me. "Cardin... why don't you go fuck yourself with that mace of yours." I replied venomously. Team CRDL on the other hand merely laughed at my reaction. "Such a feisty little one... and such a Vulgar mouth, I can't wait to shut it in combat class today!" Carding taunted me. I simply smirked evilly "Oh you think you could beat me? Well bring it cockbite!" I retorted getting up in Cardin's face, not budging as he pushed me away. Cardin grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt and his teammates (I'd call them goons) circled me, other students watched but didn't intervene.

However before a 4v1 brawl could begin Professor Goodwitch came storming down the halls, her permanently angry face now even angrier. "Children... No fighting in the halls. Save it for the arena!" came her order, using her wand to separate us all. Cardin and I eyed each other off before Cardin and his goon squad moved down the hallway towards the arena, Carding shoulder barging me as he went. I patted down my combat uniform, smoothing out the ruffles as I was approached by Weiss. "Well he seems to have set his sights on you, reckon you could take him?" I heard the angelic voice of my friend. I chuckled "I know I can... he is nothing but a bully and he sees me as prey... Oh I look forward to showing him otherwise Weiss." I replied eager for a scrap. I saw Weiss smile fall inexplicably as she looked behind me. Before I could turn to see what caused her face to fall into a deeper scowl than usual I saw the leader of JNPR come into view _'Oh here we go again... this ought to be interesting.'_ I thought as I remembered to the incident in the locker rooms before Initiation.

"Why hello Snow angel you're looking radiant as usual. Have you done something with your hair?" The Blond Knight inquired. Looking at Weiss' perfectly done hair in its off centre ponytail I could see nothing discernibly different about it from any of the hundreds of other mornings I have seen it. I looked at Weiss who had face palmed and grumbled something before facing the knight and pushing past him, nose pointed high in the air as she ignored the flirtatious knight. I chuckled and him a thumbs up before following my friend to the arena for combat classes. I missed the Knight return my thumbs up and get a look of determination on his face as I walked away.

In the arena I had just finished watching a match where Nora demolished Dove from Team CRDL in less than 3 minutes. _'Damn... poor guy, if you weren't such an asshole bully I'd actually be sympathetic to you for having to verse Nora.' _I thought, remembering my own beating at her hands. "Congratulations Miss Valkyrie on an excellent display of strength. Ok Children, our next match shall be a tag team match between: Weiss Schnee and Simon Alexander V Cardin Winchester and Jaune Arc. Teams take your positions." Professor Goodwitch said evenly. I smirked, Weiss and I had worked tag team against battle mechs in the White Castle arena many times for fun and we had actually gotten quite good at working together. As I stepped onto the arena I looked to my friend "Well looks like Jaune's got a chance to impress you... or for you to crush his dreams, literally." I said sarcastically.

Weiss looked at me grumpily. "Be careful you don't become my next victim after him... I've had enough annoyance from Yang as Is." She snarled at me. I smirked at the easily annoyed Heiress "Ok Weiss, I'll take that big brute Cardin and you take tall, blond and scraggly over there." Weiss got an eager smile upon her face and nodded in agreement at my Idea. Before the match began I took my gun-staff out from its holster and extended a blade and rammed it into the ground and extended my gauntlet's blades "May as well get some practice in with my secondary weapons, make it a bit more challenging for me. Oh yeah, mind giving me a boost at the beginning _Snowflake_?" I said using my nickname for the Heiress. Weiss nodded and took her ready position. I got into a sprinters start, pointing right at Cardin.

**Third Person PoV:**

Goodwitch signalled for the match to begin and Weiss summoned a speed glyph under Simon, propelling him at the CRDL captain before projecting a streak of Ice at the flirtatious knight.

As Simon reached Cardin he performed a hand spring over a horizontal sweep of Cardin's mace, landing behind the bully who wasn't able to recover from his massive swing in time copped a kick to the back of his knee which brought Cardin down to a kneel. Simon followed up with a stabbing punch at the back of Cardin's neck which was absorbed by his aura.

Meanwhile on the other side of the arena Jaune was barely able to keep up with Weiss' quick thrusts and flourishes of her rapier. Jaune attempted to launch a cut towards Weiss' legs but was dodged by Weiss who leaped up onto a hovering glyph a Jaune's cheat height from where Weiss sent a powerful kick careening into Jaune's jaw. sending him reeling back.

Cardin having managed to regain his footing and surprised Simon by ramming the hilt of his mace into Simon's breadbasket had gone on the offensive. Cardin swung his mace down heavily on Simon who blocked it with the armoured gauntlets on his arms. Cardin rammed a knee up into Simon's chest and landed a mace blow to Simon's head which sent the staff wielder across the room. "Weiss I need a stall on this guy!" He called to his temporary partner.

Weiss heard her partner call out and Immediately slammed the tip of her rapier into the ground and created an Ice barrier between Simon and Cardin. Weiss then turned her attention back to the blond knight who had recovered from her latest assault and had come out in a very offensive assault, fainting a blow with his sword before slamming his shield into Weiss head. it did barely any damage to her Aura but it was enough to annoy the Heiress who redoubled her assault, her Rapier coated in red dust Weiss charged back at Jaune who attempted to strike at the Heiress only to be caught by surprise at the explosive repulsion that happened when his blade met _Myrtenaster _Jaune was caught so off guard he lost grip on his long sword. With only his shield left Jaune chuckled weakly before lunging for his sword.

Weiss' ice barrier had given Simon about 5 seconds of reprieve from the bully's offensive. It was all he needed. By the time Cardin reached Simon he was ready, As Cardin swung his mace down at Simon he activated his time distorting semblance and positioned his hands so that when time sped up he was perfectly positioned to grab onto the shaft of the mace and use Cardin's mace as a lever to shift the momentum and flip Cardin through the air and slam him onto the ground. As Cardin laid on the ground, Simon punt kicked him in the groin, just for good measure. Cardin howled in pain as he reeled on the ground, but he was far from beaten. Getting up Cardin growled at the slightly smaller and leaner Simon and charged him, using Brute strength to try and regain the upper hand. Simon managed to parry or dodge most of the blows even landing a few stabs and cuts when Cardin left himself open, however one large one connected with Simon's side and sent him flying towards his teammate.

"Weiss, I think Cardin needs a taste of _Stopwatch_" Simon said to Weiss signalling for one of their tag team manoeuvrers. Weiss nodded and ignored her inept opponent that was scrambling across the ground to his sword. Weiss summoned a clockwork like glyph underneath herself as Simon charged forward at Cardin. A split second before Weiss took off at Cardin having charged her speed glyph, Simon activated his semblance once more, slowing down Cardin to a snail's pace making it impossible to avoid the flurry of attacks the Weiss unleashed as she propelled herself forward and bounced off several hovering glyphs around Cardin. Once Weiss was finished She ended moving in near slow motion as her burst of speeding up herself reversed into a burst of slowness. To avoid Cardin taking advantage of this She put a propelling glyph under me and shot Simon at Cardin so he could deliver a massive shoulder charge to Cardin in order to drive him back and keep him away from Weiss.

Unfortunately his armour caused great pain in Simon's shoulder, but he was sure that nothing had broken or dislocated, just going to be a nice bruise later on. Simon launched several punches into the gaps in Cardin's armour, trying to drain his Aura as much as possible. Simon was doing well at striking Cardin until out of nowhere a sword struck Simon in the back, knocking him down. It seemed Jaune was back into the fight. Jaune and Cardin both went to strike Simon however their weapons clanged together each causing the other to miss Simon who rolled out of the way. Cardin looked angrily at Jaune who shoved him away and faces Simon only to be met by an armoured punch as Simon retracted the gauntlet's blade and used its armour to knock Cardin over towards where Simon's staff stood in the ground.

"Weiss. Drop The Dime!" Simon called out signalling another tag team move. Weiss used immobilising glyphs to trap Cardin next to Simon's gun staff. Simon was propelled forward by another glyph and swung around his staff which was stuck vertically in the ground and smacked Cardin dead in the face with a punishing double booted kick with the steel caps of his boots. Cardin went flying, his Aura now in the red and his face matching his aura levels.

Jaune during his had been catching his breath, suddenly caught out in a 2v1 match. Weiss sized up the bumbling blond knight and smirked "Simon, I think a Dart board is in order?" She asked calmly. Simon nodded and ripped his staff out of the ground and set it into its gun mode and lined up Jaune's face with the laser pointer sight and let rip with several volley's of flechettes which bounced off of Jaune's Aura, hurting the knight nonetheless . Simon deliberately sent his shots off to one side every few volley's to force Jaune towards a corner of the arena where he was unable to manoeuvre. By the time Simon had run out of ammo in his current magazine Weiss was in position at Jaune's exposed side and propelled herself forward with a speed glyph, the sharp point of her rapier coated in a unique white dust Glyph making contact just beneath the armpit of Jaune's sword arm in the unarmoured ribs area. The blow knocked Jaune in a heap on top of the still bleeding Cardin who angrily picked up Jaune and threw him off.

"And that is match. The Winners are Simon and Weiss. Cardin and Jaune... you both must work on your team work." Professor Goodwitch said flatly, congratulating the victors and encouraging the defeated to do better. Simon and Weiss walked off the arena happily joking and complimenting each other on their teamwork and abilities. However Cardin pushed Jaune down to the ground and promised to make Jaune pay for making Cardin lose the match.

**A/N: **Well That last scene, apart from being requested by a couple of readers actually also Is my theory on why Jaune was Cardin's primary target for bullying. So keep making those requests for fights... any one from Teams CRDL, RWBY, JNPR & SNST to go at it in 1v1, 2v2 or Team v Team :)

Also Here are the Bio's on some of the OC's that you should keep an eye out for later on in the story, just in case you lose track:

- **Colonel (formerly Captain) Ty Kruger: **A long term veteran of the Atlesian Army. Ty Kruger eventually left the army after being left unhappy with their response to mounting Faunus aggression. Joining the Black Fist, Ty became Captain of _Rum Squad_ which led to him meeting Simon Alexander and commanding Simon across dozens of missions all across the Atlesian Highlands. Eventually leaving the Black Fist due to advanced age and wanting to see his grandkids grow up, Kruger and his family moved first to Mistral and then to Vacuo where Ty was eventually drawn into the Vacuo special operations unit the "Long Range Desert Raiders".

Age: 60  
Current location: Vacuo.

- **Gregory Volker: **Gregory like Simon was left orphaned by the White Fang during their murderous rampages across the kingdoms after a leadership change. Gregory during indoctrination became a big brother like figure to Simon and with His Sister Sophia were de facto leaders of the group of orphans. During the final test to become full Black Fist operatives Sophia was killed by The White Fang and this left Gregory bitter and angry for a long time. Eventually letting go of his anger and like many others saw the error of his ways deserted the Black Fist and has not been seen since.

Age: 19  
Current location: Unknown.

- **Levi Hartman: **Another Orphan who trained with Simon during their indoctrination into the Black Fist. A quiet yet capable fighter, Levi during the time Simon knew him was the least hateful towards Faunus not associated to the White Fang. Formed a close bond with fellow orphan Sarah Hogan eventually beginning a relationship with her sometime before the Battle for the Atlesian Alps when they were reunited with Simon.

Age: 18

Current location: Unknown

- **Sarah Hogan: **Sarah like Levi was quiet however she did foster considerable hatred towards the Faunus after their final test in the Grimm woods and her friend Sophia was killed. Formed a relationship with Levi and would follow him anywhere.

Age: 18  
Current location: Unknown

- **Alex Kenny: **Alex was close friends with fellow orphan Ben Lawquane who was killed by Schwarzer Belladonna as a ploy to get at Simon and as such holds considerable animosity towards Simon, however was sympathetic towards him with regards to his personal revenge against Schwarzer.

Age: 17  
Current location: Unknown

- **Kale Smyth and Shaun "Shauno" Morgan: **The resident Snipers of Rum Squad. These two smartasses took nothing seriously, constantly making jokes, pranks and innuendo to no end, much to the chagrin of Rum Squad's 2Ic Sanderson. By age 15 both of these men were accomplished Grimm killers using precise long ranged sniper rifles. Eventually working for the Schnee Dust Company as sharpshooters against Grimm and increasingly against Faunus who planned to raid dust shipments. These two became almost inseparable. Joining Rum Squad upon the request of their boss they provided sniper support to Rum Squad as well as taking the piss out of Roman at every turn. Eventually becoming disillusioned with The Black Fist after being forced to kill an Atlesian council member and a peaceful Faunus Kale and Shauno deserted and have not been seen or heard from since.

Ages: Kale: 32  
Shaun: 30

Current location: Unknown (Thought to be in Vale)

- **David Sanderson: **Served under Kruger in the Atlesian Army and joined him in the Black Fist as 2IC to Rum Squad. Sanderson was a strict former Sergeant and a disciplinarian, was the butt of most of Kale and Shauno's antics. A Highly capable soldier David had Kruger's back time and again. When Kruger left the Fist during a brief window of amnesty to long term members to exit the group David left as well and has been studying at university since, though keeps in contact with both Kruger and Simon.

Age: approx 35.  
Current location: Atlas

- **Lachlan McLean: **A deserter from the Vale Defence Force. Lachlan Served with the 1st Mobile Regiment (A Heavy armoured and mechanized formation) and was part of the force that responded to the massacre of 2 police officers protecting Simon by the White Fang. Lachlan has an intense almost psychopathic hatred of all Faunus and relished killing them. He often provided close cover to Simon during infiltrations into White Fang camps and was well versed in the "Arts" of interrogation and torture. Unlike Kale, Shauno and Simon. Lachlan returned to the Black Fist after the Atlesian capital assassinations. It is not known what happened to him since.

Age: approx. 29  
Current location: Unknown.

I hope these Bio's help you all keep track of the main OC's that have impacted on Simon's Journey through life and may continue to do so in the future. If you guys have any other questions don't hesitate to ask and I'll do what I can to answer. -CC


	25. Raiders

**A/N: First off I wanna thank you all for bringing this story up to over 5500 views! you've all made me so happy that so many people have checked out this story.**

I know the last few chapters have been a little light on plot and mainly character development and interactions between characters. (and me having a lot of fun with the combat matches.) But things are going to begin to move along again now plot wise.

I have been writing this with the Volume 2 Soundtrack on repeat. My top 3 songs:  
1/ "Boop"  
2/ "Caffeine"  
3/ "Die"

What do you guys think?

I got a question for my readers: Would you like to see more of the story told through other characters eyes (e.g.: Velvet, Blake, Weiss just to name 3) or just keep it from Simon's PoV unless he isn't present? feedback on this will help me immensely with how to continue telling this tale. -CC

**Disclaimer: I Still DON'T own RWBY**

**Chapter 25: Raiders. Vacuo Desert, Ty Kruger's PoV:**

We had been holding the perimeter around the crashed airship for well over a week now, being resupplied by air as crash investigators from both Vale and Vacuo to try and piece together what had happened to bring down this Dust shipment. I had been called over to a small tent that served as a field HQ to get in touch with command back in Vacuo. As I took a seat near the monitor I stretched my aching legs _'I was too old for this crap 20 years ago... why the hell am I still doing this?' _I thought to myself cynically. The connection back to Vacuo failed a couple times, not surprising given that we were nearly 1000km's from the city and a good 200km from the nearest friendly settlement with a radio transmitter.

"Colonel Kruger, can you read?" Came the static filled voice of the Militia HQ radio dispatcher trying to reach me for a 3rd time.

"I read you 2 by 3. The signal is bullshit out here." I replied, my temper not in the best mood as I was borderline heatstroke.

"wait one, increasing signal strength. There, stable connection secured, transferring you to Chief of Operations: Brigadier Slate." Came the radio dispatcher's voice followed by a click as the transmission was moved to the Brigadier.

"Colonel Kruger how are you holding up out there you old snowman?" The Brigadier asked using his pet name for the Atlesian.

"The squadron is holding up well, the sandstorms missed us thankfully... I imagine they're just as deadly as Atlesian blizzards. Mind telling me what the investigators have found out? They aint telling me shit." I replied dead-panned, not wanting to let my frustration show.

"To be honest: Not much to tell, the Airship was taken down by some heavy duty SAM's... no idea on the make or origin of them as it is difficult to find fragments of the missiles. All I know is that it is gear that up till now we had thought was NOT in the hands of Dust bandits and other undesirables that inhabit the deserts and that you're going to find and eliminate whoever did this." The Brigadier replied, an eagerness in his voice to get to the bottom of this.

I was gobsmacked "With all due respect sir... we're already 1000km from Vacuo, you're wanting me to take my men even further into the desert?"

"Got it in 1 Kruger. It is your job... or do you think we call you the _LONG RANGE Desert Raiders _for nothing? We're airlifting some militia infantry to replace you in guarding the crash site as well as to bring you fresh stocks of supplies and extra ammo for your vehicle mounted weapons as well as your ATGMs. I'll contact you in the morning to give you further details. Brigadier Slate out." And the line dropped out as soon as the reply from Slate was complete not giving me any time to rebut. Grumbling I marched out of the tent and called for a meeting of the Squadrons officers, they were sure to be as unhappy about this as I was.

**The Next Afternoon: Ty Kruger's PoV**

Slate had eventually handed me a list of 5 areas which contained a highly probable site to hide a camp and advanced SAM emplacements. One for each of my troops. So The Squadron had split, each 30 man troop being assigned 1 target area. I had decided to bring my Squadron HQ (essentially a couple of jeeps and trucks with advanced comms arrays with "C" Troop to hit the furthest target area... an additional 400km into the wastelands from the crash site.

"You know Colonel... I honestly think someone in HQ hates us, no other squadron gets sent this far out from the city." My driver, a scrawny kid who couldn't be more than 19 theorised. he was probably right... a lot of people weren't happy about me a former Atlesian Captain and Black Fist soldier getting such a high rank immediately upon joining, but I wasn't going to let him know that.

"We're just the new Squadron on the block... they're just testing us out, seeing how we handle under pressure." I replied evenly, trying to calm the boy's nerves.

"Colonel Sir, C-3 here We got Grimm bearing 271 approx 2km off moving parallel to us. It looks like Beowolves... not your regular kind either, those big Wasteland bastards about 50 of em." I heard a member of C troop's 3rd patrol call over the radio. Grabbing my binoculars I could indeed see off in the East a large group of desert Grimm. Frowning I weighed up possible courses of action _'Ugh.. of course they would turn up just as we were out of range of help.' _I thought as I reached forward and raked the bolts on the twin machine gun mount in front of me and opened a comms channel to everyone in the troop "Don't let those trigger fingers get too itchy... let's just see what these Grimm do first, if they come within 500m of the column then mow them down." I ordered my men, hoping that the Grimm don't decide that they want to try and make us an afternoon snack.

The Grimm kept their distance, closing slowly on us. trying to keep out of sight behind sand dunes. The Grimm out here were smarter, larger and more adaptive than the younger more restless Grimm that lived closer to the kingdoms and came into more contact and were subject to more culls by hunters and the various armies the kingdoms possessed.

It was near sunset and we were still about 50km from our supposed target area. The terrain was covered with sand dunes, couldn't see for more than 300m without your view being obstructed by a dune, though at most angles view range was 200m at most. The gunners were keeping their heads on a swivel, looking for any sign of the Grimm that had remained unseen for the best part of an hour. "Sir... I got a bad feeling about this." My driver said nervously, I shushed him and swivelled my twin machine gun mount. I didn't want to scare the boy but I also had just as bad a feeling about this particular stretch of desert.

There was a dune about 150m to our front, it was then that I saw them cresting it, about two dozen of the wasteland Beowolves charging right at the 15 vehicles (13 _Desert Rat _jeeps and 2 comms trucks) that made up "C" Troop and my Squadron HQ. I didn't hesitate, grabbing the twin mounted 7.62mm machine guns I let loose with a large sweeping burst into the group. I could hear other vehicles calling out contacts in other directions that was accompanied by the various sounds of weapons firing. The deep slow _Thud-Thud-Thud _of the 40mm Automatic Grenade Launchers mounted on the rear mounts of some jeeps or the quicker _Boom-Boom-Boom _of the 7.62mm and .50 cal machine guns. I quickly realised it wasn't just one pack.. we seemed to have attracted the attention of several other packs as there was way more than 50 of these bastards. "Troop. put the pedal to the metal... we gotta punch a hole right through the group to our front. Gunners keep up your fire!" I ordered calmly over the radio as my driver floored it right at the group to our front.

I began firing my twin 7.62mm's and managed to shoot a few of the big wolves down. all around the convoy angry howls mixed in with the cacophony of weapon discharges. We were less than 100m from the group in front of us, our convoy going a speedy 70km/h along the desert sand with Grimm closing in on all sides. It was at this point that my guns decided to jam, not having enough time to rectify the problem I grabbed up the Automatic shotgun beside the seat and braced for impact.

Our jeep which was in the lead sped right into the group of Beowolves. Crushing the first one that didn't react in time, it's head splattering as it made contact with the bull bar. The next one however managed to jump up and land on the bonnet of the jeep and slammed a claw into the bullet proof windscreen causing it to crack, expecting this I raised the shotgun and pumped the Grimm's ugly snarling face with Six 12 gauge slugs, basically turning it to mush, its body being crushed under the 6 wheel drive.

Before I could relish ridding my jeep of the giant Beowolf I heard a sickening crunch, in my rear view mirror I saw one of the jeeps get smacked on the side by a Grimm and began flipping over and over on its side. I could see the occupants, the Troop commander included scramble out, sidearms drawn and trying to fend off the giant Grimm with not but pistols... it was gallant but fruitless, all nearby Grimm swamped them and overwhelmed them, I could see blood and guts strewn over the sand and the faces of the Grimm that got a hold of them. I closed my eyes in a quick moment to honour the sacrifice of my newfound brothers in arms and to kick myself for getting my men killed.

"Troop, once we clear this dune form line formation, reduce the risk of friendly fire now we have all the Grimm behind us... 50m spread." I called over the radio, my tone even and in control. If I panicked the men would as well and panicked men led to more deaths. My driver was currently swerving and a Grimm slammed the side of my jeep trying to mimic what happened to the Troop Commander's jeep. My driver was ramming the Grimm, not letting it get too much momentum up and I was trying to get a good shot on it with my shotgun seeing as it was too close for the gunner to get at with the 40mm. "Come on you cockbite! Eat some fucking lead!" I yelled at it as it changed tactic and latched onto the side of the jeep, trying to bite at me, only for it to get my shotgun's barrel down its throat and several slugs tearing its insides up. Once the now dead Grimm fell lifelessly off the side of my jeep and the troop cleared the dunes the vehicles drew parallel to each other 50m apart and the gunners all faced rearward to pepper any chasing Grimm with 40mm grenades or .50 cal slugs.

Once we had put some distance between us and the Grimm pack that backed off, having wasted their element of surprise I got the troop to halt, check for damage and injuries. one gunner had been killed by a leaping Grimm that took the poor guys head straight off, his body was still standing and his hands still gripping the hand guards of the 40mm grenade launcher he was manning. Each soldier in "C" Troop looked solemnly at this display of doing ones duty right till the end.

Looking around the rest of the Vehicles I could see some had massive dents, missing parts, bull bars ripped off. But despite all that "C" Troop had come out relatively unscathed. I made my way to the comms truck and brought up each of the other 4 troops that made up my squadron as the men made hurried repairs and reloaded guns and grenade launchers. Turned out all but "E" Troop had made contact with the various desert Grimm and were in various conditions. "A" and "D" troops got off relatively unscathed, losing 2 vehicles each but no other injuries or casualties. "B" Troop however had lost approx 2/3 of its strength and was down to 3 working jeeps and 11 men (4 of which were wounded), the senior soldier being a corporal who had only been promoted a week before this mission. I had asked if they wanted to head to the nearest settlement and wait for evac but they had elected to continue on with their mission. I had to admire the determination that seemed inherent to everyone who called vacuo home, even if their lack of uniformity in any aspect of their dress drove an organised Atlesian such as myself around the bend.

Exiting the comms truck I summoned all the patrol leaders as well as major Silver to review my plan of attack on the camp that lay about 10km away from here. "Well from the images we've been sent it seems this camp is guarded by an anti-vehicle trench and a thick wall... very high probability of heavy enemy contact... maybe even the suspect AA launcher. Plan of attack after we conduct recon to gain more details on enemy strength will be a standard V formation assault to bring maximum firepower to bare against whatever enemies inhabit this camp. Once we hit the final 200m we form up single file to enter the camp. Once we're in the camp passengers and driver's will dismount and complete the sweeps, gunner's stay on your mounts and provide suppressive fire. Any questions or comments? That aren't about how much of a bullshit mission this is please." Upon seeing no hands raised or anyone speak up I dismissed the patrol leaders to go talk to their Troopers.

I took the time to sit in the comms truck which featured a luxury: an air-conditioner to keep the comms gear from getting heat damaged, but it was heaven for me to just sit in there and relax out of the last of the afternoon heat, I'd hate to give myself a damned heart attack out here through heat exposure. I sat there cooling down and sending a progress report back to Vacuo before the sun went down and the scouts I'd sent out returned.

It had been dark for about an hour when we heard the whine of motorcycle engines to signify that the scouts had returned from checking out the camp. They had brought with them several photographs pointing out several reinforced machine gun nests, mortars and static rocket launchers. All of it looked like it had only been put up not more than 2 or 3 months ago, it had few signs of wear or tear from the harsh desert. I looked over the photographs and got an uneasy feeling about this all _'All of this gear is quite advanced and new... who the hell is operating out here with such high tech equipment... and why?' _ I though anxiously as I made a few adjustments to my plan of assault before the Troop mounted up and quietly made their way towards the camp.

About 1.5km from the camp just behind a very large dune I stopped the convoy and had the Squadron HQ take the Anti-Tank missiles the troop carried and pointed out through thermal imaging lenses sights the bunkers and other static defences, the HQ's job would be to eliminate those obstacles just before the rest of the troop made its mounted charge at the camp, hopefully disorientating whoever occupied the area enough that they can't put up serious resistance.

We waited until it was the dead of night, about 2:30am before making our move, hopefully most of them would be asleep. The HQ troopers took up their positions along the top of the dunes, the jeeps of "C" Troop including mine and Major Silver's jeeps just behind the summit, waiting to floor it over the dune and towards the camp once the missiles were fired. I clicked the PTT button on my radio twice to signal for the assault to begin. The HQ loosed their guided missiles and several explosions rocked the camp as the 11 Jeeps that were taking part in the assault rolled forward and began heading full speed towards the camp in a V formation, just like the horse mounted charges of old. As predicted the enemy was scattered, disorientated and a large part of their defences rendered useless.

That being said, the enemy reacted quickly and Mortars, rockets, grenade launchers and rifles quickly opened up at us. Whenever I saw something flash I hosed the area down with the twin mounted machine guns that I'd had fixed between the fight with the Grimm and now. We got within 1km and the incoming fire intensified, but we pressed on. I saw a rocket speed past my jeep and smack into the one behind me to the right, the jeep going airborne and exploding midair as the fuel tanks ignited. As it hit the ground the jeeps behind it had to swerve to avoid the burning wreck and the screams of the soon to be dead occupants, I'd made it perfectly clear not to stop for wounded as we made our charge in lest we get pinned down and slaughtered... Such is war.

The HQ soldiers had loosed another volley of missiles that rocked the camp and silenced much of the heavier opposition. "Wahoo! Colonel... This is a kick ass ride!" My driver said, his tone one of adrenaline fuelled excitement as he dodged bullets, rockets and mortars. I couldn't help but be a little exhilarated myself I began to cackle insanely, letting the adrenaline take over as I continued to fire into the enemies camp, the green of my night vision goggles filled with bright flashes of light from fires in the camp, muzzle flashes and tracers dancing in the night sky, it had been a long time since I'd been in a fire fight this intense.

We had gotten within less than 500m of the camp when out of the main entrance came strolling two lone figures, just walking towards us, almost casually. My blood ran cold, I hadn't anticipated hunter trained enemies to be here. I could only watch helplessly as they flourished their weapons, both of which seemed to be wielding matching swords, their flourishes resulting in a wave flash of dust and then a streak of light that hit a vehicle right behind me, reducing it to nothing but incinerated ashes.

Something inside me snapped as I opened a comms channel "ALL UNITS: Focus fire on those hunters! I want reduced to nothing but ashes! hose them down with 40 mike mike!" I called over the radio before I trained my twin mounted guns onto the pair and unleashed hell upon them as did everyone else. The hunters jumped up on the air to dodge the machine guns and 40mm grenades but something they hadn't expected was for our missiles to be guided, for in mid air both were hit by the missiles that unlike our other weapons had merely followed the now airborne hunters. The explosion slammed the pair back down into the camp, dazed and looking worse for wear but still standing. _'Well fuck these two!' _I thought. The main gate was coming up quickly and our jeeps lined up single file to enter into the camp, my gunner still pumping grenades into the hunters. At less than 100m range the Hunters dashed forward, both flipping up: one landing on my jeep and the other bouncing off mine and further back into the column.

The hunter on my jeep swiped his sword over my guns, slicing them both in half. I already had the automatic shot gun in my hand and I pumped him with 12 gauge slugs, he absorbed the rounds better than the Grimm did but the sheer force of the point blank impacts combined with the jinking and swerving my driver was doing to unbalance the hunter pushed him off the jeep, my driver ensuring to run him over on his way down. The column split into pairs once they had cleared the main gate, sweeping the camp, shooting up anything that moved, the original plan to instantly dismount all but abandoned. my Jeep however skidded to a halt once we had finished running over the rogue hunter the gunner continued pumping 40mm grenades into him, bits of shrapnel spraying everywhere. We saw the rogue's mangled corpse. _'Heh only so much punishment an aura can take... thanks for teaching me that trick Simon.' _I thought, as I signalled for the driver to keep going further into the camp, I wanted to find a command complex of some type to search for answers.

Once we crossed the boundary into the camp, there was only one possible result: Our mobility and firepower overwhelmed the enemy, they quickly began surrendering once they'd seen one of their hunters being killed and the other being incapacitated and captured by another part of the Troop. I eventually found what looked to be a command complex, right next to 3 advanced, mobile SAM launchers... This was certainly the group that brought down the airship, only question now is "WHY?" I had my driver and gunner wait outside, making sure no one followed me in. My Automatic Shotgun raised I reached a command centre that had two men and a woman in it trying desperately to shred papers and wipe computers. They saw me and attempted to surrender, however 1 slug to each one's face ended their attempts at hiding evidence. Taking a data stick I began downloading every file I could from the computer, it was all encrypted but I knew people who could crack any code.

While that was downloading I checked the tree corpses, finding no ID. But I knew these people didn't belong out here... they all wore identical uniforms, something No Vacuo native could ever do, Vacuo people were much more individualistic than any other kingdom, even the militia had no real uniform to speak of. I made a more detailed search of the corpses, eventually finding what I was looking for "Well well well, you guys are a long way from home now aren't you? I wonder what your masters would have to do with this all then aye?" I questioned the obviously dead corpses sarcastically. Once the download onto the data stick was completed I noted several blocks of explosives on all the equipment, I set a timer for 60 seconds and left, wanting to eradicate the evidence I had found, It was too dangerous for everyone involved for the Vacuo Council to find out about who exactly was behind this, no this was a lead I had to follow up myself... and I knew just the man to help me.

As I exited the building several thuds sounded and the ground shook, signalling that the charges had done their job. Major Silver looked suspiciously at me, but decided against questioning my methods, instead offering a casual salute and handing me a scroll "8 dead, 5 wounded. Plus the 4 dead from the Grimm attack, but we got the job done sir. I've had the HQ send a signal back to Vacuo for aerial evac, we're not in shape to drive the 1400km back to the city and I think people need to see these launchers ASAP, congratulations Colonel... you found the cause of the crash, but I only think this has left more questions than it has answered. Foremost being: Who gave this rabble so much high end gear and what's the story with the rogue hunters?" I shrugged and took a swig from my canteen before offering the Major some. "I have no idea right now, but I got a few hunches." I replied scanning the burning wreckage that was this camp, only the incriminating launchers complete with Atlesian Army markings remained undamaged after the assault and fire fight.

**Beacon Academy: Wednesday Week 3, Simon's PoV:**

Nyanza had been quiet for the past few days, spending his free time away from the team. Probably with Yang or one of his other mates in other teams. I had only seen him for classes, team training, meals and when it was time for sleep. I didn't particularly care, so long as we worked well together during classes and training and eventually missions my team could do as they wished away from the team. In fact I encouraged SNST to go off solo during our free time, though Teal and Sienna seemed to spend a bit of time together. No need to be up in each other's faces 24/7.

So here I found myself after classes ended for the day resting under a tree near Beacon cliffs reading a book from the Library. It was part of a series about an Atlesian soldier-turned teacher-turned spy who rose through the ranks and eventually became president of the Atlas Ruling Council after his predecessor as killed when a rogue Mistralan pilot ploughed his Airship into the Council chamber's as revenge for Atlas defeating Mistral in a small war over some contested islands.

The weather was much warmer here than in Atlas and I was feeling very hot and bothered even doing the most simple tasks while out in the Valean sun, but at least I was losing the pale skin that most Atlesians seemed to have. _'Wow If I' am suffering here. I'd hate to think how bad Kruger has it in Vacuo... But then again he is probably sitting in an air conditioned room drinking Scotch. He had a lot of Lien saved up, so he is probably a very rich man by Vacuo standards.' _I thought as I fanned myself with my novel. I heard footsteps approaching me, sighing I put my bookmark in place and placed the novel in the small backpack I had with me. "Hey Simon, Sienna said I should be able to find you down here." I heard Velvet's nervous voice from behind me. I internally sighed _'So much for peace and tranquillity.' _

I turned to face the bunny girl, a small smirk on my face "I wouldn't know why Sienna knows where I' am... I specifically come down here so I can't be found." I replied. My voice soft, so as not to frighten or put off Velvet from coming down here and seeing me. "Oh I' am sorry, I didn't know you were down here to be alone." Velv turned to leave but I grabbed her hand as gently as I could "No. you put in the effort to find me so it'd be extremely rude of me to turn you away." I replied hurriedly, my voice cracking slightly. I noticed Velvet blushing slightly and looking down to where my hand was grasping hers. I thought nothing of the blush as I withdrew my hand and offered her a place on the mat I'd brought down with me. "So what are you wondering Velv? Or did you just miss me." I chuckled weakly, trying to defuse the thick awkward atmosphere that had existed between Velv and I since she'd come crashing back into my life. Velv smiled lightly as she sat down and I beside her.

"Well Simon, I was just wondering and just tell me to stop if you don't feel comfortable answering... why you ran? why not hide until the White Fang left and then came to seek refuge with my family? I know it is probably a painful memory.. but it is a question that's plagued my family and I most of all for 5 years. " Velvet asked, a tone of hurt in her eyes.

I averted my eyes and thought back to that night... the fear I felt, my mother's screams as The White Fang caught her and I ran for my life... just as she told me to. "Velv, my mother told me to run... to run far away from that place. I don't think she wanted you all getting involved, she was protecting you and your family as well as me when she told me to run and not stop or return. Even when I ended up in Vale in police protection... the Fang found me and butchered those poor cops." I replied, my breath hitching as I remembered every detail of that night and the night that followed in the police station, if armed police in downtown Vale couldn't protect me or even themselves... what would have become of your parents? what would have become of you... I can tell you that The White Fang treats traitorous Faunus much worse than they will any human." I replied sadly, my fists clenching until my knuckles were ghost white at the thought of those monsters in the Fang getting Velvet or her family.

Velvet nodded slowly, understanding and accepting my late mother's logic. "Well I guess that is sound logic... but you really should come back home sometime? Everyone in town is going into overdrive with questions to me that I can't possibly answer." She asked hopeful. I was a bit taken aback... I hadn't anticipated such a request... I was so used to scorn or indifference from strangers that it was kinda overwhelming for people to actually want to see me and wanting to care about my welfare. What hit me even harder was the mention of _Home_... to me for as long as I could remember home was wherever I would rest my head for the night. Rum Squad's barracks had been my home, as had the Castle Guard barracks when I was with the SDC, I even considered the SNST dorm to be a home of sorts. To me Exton had just been a bad memory to be forgotten.

I felt a single tear run down my cheek, only to be wiped off by the delicate fingers of Velvet. "Hey Simon, are you ok? Hey what's wrong... talk to me." I heard her say softly, her hand slowly stroking the tears away I didn't flinch at the contact, It was quite comforting. "I' am fine Velvet... just struggling with the concept of going back to what you call home... what I call a memory best left forgotten." I replied, blinking back any remaining tears, not particularly wanting to let the emotional floodgates open here.

Velvet frowned at my response letting out a hurt sigh "I know it is painful to think about, but you can't hide from it forever... the people there do care and it is your home and my family or any other family will welcome you with open arms, whether you think it is or not Exton always has been and always will be home for you." Velvet replied defiantly, all awkwardness and meekness gone from her voice, making sure her point got through my stupid thick skull that I was no longer a transient moving from one job or mission to another without any single anchor to keep me in one place, that I had somewhere I could always return to and be safe.

I chuckled lightly, giving Velv a mock salute "Yes ma'am, any other orders for this grunt?" I replied, impressed with just how commanding Velvet could be when she wanted to, she certainly was not the modest and meek teenager as she appeared just looking at her. Nope she was a warrior, strong and fearless. "Nothing right now, but maybe during the semester break you can come visit... that gives you some time to prepare and get settled in at Beacon as well as sorting out your own mind and emotions, just know that there are people you can talk to... you are never alone in all of this, take care Simon." With that she gave me a quick hug before bouncing off towards the academy, leaving me there to think and reminisce of my childhood with Velvet.

**A/N:** Well what did Kruger find on those three corpses? what will he find on the data stick? You'll find out that and many other things soon my peeps :)

I also want to just announce now that I may not be able to post for much of January or February (But I' am working to get as much writing done during December as I can) as I'll be away working without much internet access on my laptop. During which time I'll be re-writing a lot of the earlier chapters (just cleaning them up: Grammar, spelling, paragraph length among other things)

So if you want to keep up with _From Hunted to Hunter _once my posting hiatus is up: follow or favourite the story and not miss any updates from yours truly.

Hope you're all enjoying your holiday season -CC


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